MIL BOYS SOCCER: LAHAINALUNA 0, Baldwin 4 – January 25, 2012

Tonight was a crucial match up to determine the MIL boys champion. After their 1-0 win over Kamehameha Schools Maui, the boys were in the driver’s seat of the MIL soccer standings and their first ever MIL soccer championship. Unfortunately, a series of events and circumstances arose that would benefit Baldwin (no surprise there?) and put Lahainaluna at a major disadvantage.

Lahainaluna was supposed to play back-to-back home-and-home matches against winless Hana over the weekend after the Baldwin match. Hana, however, indicated it would forfeit a match and only show up to play one game. This sucked because if Lahainaluna were to end up in a tie for first place, I understand that one of the tie-breakers would be goals scored. With the relatively low scoring games that the Lunas had recently (2-1 vs. St. Anthony and 1-0 vs. Kamehameha Maui), the games in Hana were crucial to adding to their goals scored column.  However, while a forfeit equates to a win, it would only add 1 goal to the scoring column. Of course, Baldwin had run up the score against Hana when they met so they would have an advantage in that tie-breaker.

To make matters worse, the games against Hana were rescheduled to yesterday - Tuesday, January 24, 2012. Why the MIL would reschedule a game for Lahainaluna to the night before the biggest game of the year for Lahainaluna is beyond comprehension. Conspiracy theorists can have a field day with this one. Why Lahainaluna would even agree to it is beyond me – unless, of course, they had no say in the matter. Even though the match was against Hana, it still put Lahainaluna in a situation where they had to play its players – on a school a night – for a full game prior to the big game against Baldwin. Moreover, because the pressure was on to score as much goals as possible to deal with the aforementioned tie-breaker scenario, the Lunas were forced to play their top players the entire game to essentially “run up the score.” Don’t you just love rules that force teams to be unsportsmanlike and run up the score? So rather than being rested and at full strength for tonight’s match against Baldwin for the championship, the Lunas were tired and from playing the night before. So guess who benefits from that?

JORGE HERNANDEZ TESTING HIS ANKLE

What sucked even more, is that Lahainaluna’s star player – Jorge “Pikachu” Hernandez – badly injured his ankle in the Hana game. For a player whose game is based on speed and lightning-fast quickness and change of direction, having a  badly sprained ankle would significantly reduce his effectiveness. Of course, Baldwin benefits from that. Like I said, conspiracy theorists couldn’t write this crap any better!

In the meantime, Baldwin had reeled off some wins to put themselves within striking distance. All things considered, things were not looking good.  While a Lahainaluna win here would seal the championship for Lahainaluna and weaken Baldwin’s chance at making States, the injury to Jorge was a huge blow. Moreover, the quirky MIL schedule essentially made this game the Lunas’ final game of the regular season. Baldwin still had winnable matches against Seabury Hall and St. Anthony. And the Lunas still had to rely on Maui High to take care of business against King Kekaulike and Kamehameha Schools Maui. If Maui High took care of those matches and if the Lunas beat Baldwin, Baldwin’s remaining matches (and likely victories) over Seabury Hall and St. Anthony would still have the Bears falling short of the playoffs.

That was at stake leading up to tonight’s match up at Keoupuolani Park. The fatigue from playing the night before was evident from the start – Lahainaluna just seemed to be a step behind on all the plays. Baldwin, playing in front of their home fans and playing their home finale/senior game, were pumped up. Unfortunately, the Lunas tried to compensate for their physical fatigue with emotion and intensity. But they came out too emotional and too fired up – the Lunas were not able to play their game and lost focus. Baldwin was able to capitalize on it and scored 2 quick goals. Jorge Hernandez tried admirably to play on one leg, but it was painful to watch this proud player trying so hard, but being physically unable to do anything. Goalie Gerry Ramirez, a standout goalie throughout the year, was inexplicably benched the entire second half – probably from being too emotional. Reece Sinenci played his heart out in the first half trying to ward off the Baldwin attack and their all-star, Mattias Thompson. You could literally see his sweat flying off his face as he played. Unfortunately, after halftime and the cold blustery conditions down at Keoupuolani took its toll and he too fell victim to fatigue with leg cramps that ended his night.

To their credit, the Bears dominated the match all night. The Lunas barely got past mid-field and had very little scoring attempts. Still, had the circumstances been different – no match the night before and no injury to Jorge Hernandez, the match would’ve been more competitive. But due to circumstances mostly beyond their control, that never happened.

REECE SINENCI & CHRISTIAN CARDENAS

CHRISTIAN CARDENAS, REECE SINENCI and EMERSON LIBURD

GERRY RAMIREZ

CHRISTIAN CARDENAS

NOAH CAMARA

JARED ROCHA

REECE SINENCI EXHORTING HIS TEAMMATES ON

THAT'S GONNA HURT IN THE MORNING

FRUSTRATED BY HIS INJURY . . . WANTING IT SO BAD

RHYS LENDIO

ADDENDUM: This ended up being the last boys soccer game I shot as this was their season finale. With their win over Lahainaluna, Baldwin – as expected – went on to win the MIL Championship.

The Lunas were forced to wait it out and hope that Maui High lost both their remaining matches in order for them to make it to States. Maui High did in fact lose their remaining two matches and Lahainaluna backed into a spot in the HHSAA tournament.

Although Lahainaluna fell short in its quest for their first ever MIL championship (like they did last year), at least their season did not end like it did last year when they were denied a chance to go to States.

The Lunas went on to a respectable showing at the HHSAA tournament. Although they did not win, they were in it for both matches.  The future still looks bright for Lahainaluna boys soccer as this year’s team was a very young team. Congratulations and farewell to the following seniors:  Jorge Hernandez, Gerardo Ramirez and Deason Allen.

Click on the following for Maui News articles regarding:
1)  Maui High taking over first place.
2)  Baldwin adding to the log jam at the top of the standings.
3)  Lahainaluna taking over first place with a win over Hana.
4)  For the article on this game, click here.

For more photos, click here.