HONOLULU — Kamehameha and Punahou entered Wednesday’s girls' soccer match with a clean sheet on the Interscholastic League of Honolulu season.
Neither left Alexander Field the same way after an unusual finish to a 1-1 draw.
After the three-time defending state champion Warriors broke through a disjointed game with Kamryn Kaleiohi’s counterattack in the 76th minute, Kamehameha appeared to be on the cusp of control in the ILH. But that was short-lived as the Buffanblu scrambled over the next few minutes, caused chaos in the Kamehameha penalty box and earned a game-changing indirect kick in controversial fashion.
As shadows lengthened on the turf field in Manoa, the referee determined that Kamehameha senior goalkeeper Marley Roe picked up the ball on a backward pass from the feet of a teammate, a violation. He awarded the Buffanblu the kick from the spot of the play about 6 yards out from the goal, or about half the distance of a penalty kick.
Kamehameha players argued to no avail that the ball had reached Roe on a deflection and Roe’s gather was legal.
Facing a wall of bodies about to charge the moment the official blew his whistle to resume play, Punahou’s Candace Ching tapped it — on an indirect kick, a player needs to touch the ball before it can be scored by someone else — and Ellie Gusman tied it up on a blast that slid between the nearest Warrior defender and the right post in the 79th minute.
They were the first goals allowed on the season for Punahou and Kamehameha, who stand at 5-0-1.
“I think there was less than a minute left when they called that indirect kick in the box,” Gusman, a senior, told Spectrum News. “(Ching) just told me, you know what, keep it on frame and just kick it as hard as you can and just hope for the best. So, she touched it and I just hit it and obviously it was a great moment.”
Afterward, the teams disagreed on the ruling of the kick.
“I think in that situation our goalie has the knowledge not to pick up a ball that’s been passed back to her,” Kamehameha coach Missy Moore said. “Thirty seconds left in the game, I think that kind of call is a little, well, ehhh.” She made a face.
Roe, who stood between the pipes when the Warriors beat the Buffanblu on penalty kicks to settle the 2022 state title in a scoreless game, was adamant that it was a deflection.
“I was arguing for my call. He said it was a direct pass back when it clearly hit off (the defender) when I picked it up,” Roe said.
The referee had seldom blown his whistle to that point. Neither team had the run of play in the first half as the ball was batted around without any flow in either direction, leaving both sides dissatisfied. Before Kaleiohi’s counterattack finish, Punahou was the aggressor in the second half.
Punahou coach Shelley Izuno applauded the referee for not hesitating in a high-leverage situation.
“Basically, (after Kamehameha scored), it was just pressure the ball, go 100% and you never know what’s going to happen,” Izuno said. “You could even get a ricochet. Anything can happen. And it was a pass. It’s crazy, the goalkeeper knows people are coming in and, I get it, you panic and you pick the ball up. So, I’m just glad it was called.”
She'd just spoken about her team at practice the day before about the unlikely possibility of executing an indirect kick in the box, she said, and her players were in disbelief that it came to pass the next day.
The Warriors shook hands with the Buffanblu and left the field without major protest. The teams are scheduled to meet again in the ILH season finale at Kamehameha’s field on Jan. 21 in a game that could determine the league crown and a seeded berth to the state tournament.
Kamehameha claimed the three most recent state titles in 2022, 2020 and 2019. There was no tournament in 2021 due to the pandemic. Punahou is attempting to position itself for its first state crown since it three-peated from 2009 to 2011.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.