Sports
Pacific H.S. roundup: Greenert helps Kinnick take soccer title
Stars and Stripes
May 12, 2006
Kadena Panthers junior Dean Harkum, left, and Kubasaki Dragons senior Chris Monroy battle for the ball during Wednesday’s Okinawa Activities Council boys soccer match, the last of the four-match “Rumble on the Rock” series, at Mike Petty Stadium, Kubasaki High School, Camp Foster, Okinawa. Monroy scored one goal in a losing cause, ending Kadena’s 516-minute shutout streak, as the Panthers beat the Dragons 2-1, winning the season series 2-1-1. (Dave Ornauer / S&S)
Kadena Panthers junior Dean Harkum, left, and Kubasaki Dragons senior Chris Monroy battle for the ball during Wednesday’s Okinawa Activities Council boys soccer match, the last of the four-match “Rumble on the Rock” series, at Mike Petty Stadium, Kubasaki High School, Camp Foster, Okinawa. Monroy scored one goal in a losing cause, ending Kadena’s 516-minute shutout streak, as the Panthers beat the Dragons 2-1, winning the season series 2-1-1. (Dave Ornauer / S&S)
Alex Berardo of Kubasaki Dragons launches a shot at the Kadena net. (Dave Ornauer / S&S)
Kadena Panthers senior Anthony Soroka, right, reaches up to kick the ball as Mike Jolly of the Kubasaki Dragons watches. (Dave Ornauer / S&S)
While Nile C. Kinnick keeps adding to its stash of girls soccer championships, the Red Devils may have also found a new scoring weapon in Sarah Greenert.
The senior has six goals in her last two matches, the last two coming on Wednesday as Kinnick avenged the only blemish on its season record, a tie last month against the American School In Japan, by beating the Mustangs 2-1.
The victory improved the Red Devils to 15-0-1 on the season, and gave them the Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools title to go with the Japan Soccer League championship they won back in March.
“It feels great. Everybody worked hard. We’re all excited,” Greenert said.
Normally a defensive midfielder, Greenert has taken advantage of the handful of scoring chances she’s gotten when coach Nicolas Hindie moves her forward from time to time during matches. “I guess I just found the ball and my teammates got me there,” she said.
Greenert has become the fifth Red Devil striker with 10 or more goals this season. That’s a record for a team that Greenert says is primed for next week’s Far East Class AA tournament on Okinawa, where the Red Devils hope to duplicate Final Four finishes in 2003 and 2004, and perhaps reach their first championship match since losing 1-0 to Kadena in 2000.
“We sure hope so,” Greenert said. “We have more confidence this year than last year.”
Kadena boys win rubber game; Panthers girls finish sweepThe 2006 Okinawa "Rumble on the Rock" boys soccer season series between Kadena and Kubasaki couldn’t have been more even at a win, a loss and a draw each entering Wednesday’s rubber match at Kubasaki’s Mike Petty Stadium.
Defending Class AA runner-up Kadena came away with the victory in the finale, as Nathan LaGrave converted a penalty kick in the 51st minute to snap a 1-1 tie and the Panthers held on for a 2-1 triumph.
Kadena coach Mike Callahan called the verdict typical for two teams that have met twice in Class AA championship matches, Kubasaki winning in 2001 and Kadena in 2004.
“That’s the way it’s been lately,” said Callahan about two teams that played to a 0-0 tie on March 17 at Kadena. Kubasaki won the second game 2-1 on March 29 and Kadena blanked Kubasaki 2-0 on April 19 before Wednesday’s series-deciding game. “It becomes a coin toss once you get the two teams onto the field.”
“Every time we play, the adrenaline rises and the play gets physical, sometimes too rough,” Kadena senior striker Aaron Zendejas said. “But that’s why Okinawa soccer is so competitive and that’s why the (Far East Class AA) title has been down here for so long.”
Kadena is the all-time leader in boys Class AA titles with three, while Kubasaki has two. The fever pitch of some of those matches is great preparation, Callahan said, for Far East, starting Monday at Yokota Air Base, Japan.
“You can throw out those four match results when it comes to Far East,” Callahan said. “We use those four matches to feel each other out and prepare for the tournament.”
While Kadena won the season series, its streak of minutes played without allowing a goal came to an end at 516 when Kubasaki’s Chris Monroy banged in a rebound of a shot that Panthers goalkeeper Ted Awana managed to halt at point-blank range.
“Credit Ted and his golden hands,” Zendejas said of Awana, who has seven shutouts this season.
While defense had been a strength for Kadena’s boys, it was a worry for Panthers girls coach Hoa Nguyen until Wednesday, when goalkeeper Helen Schrock and Kadena blanked Kubasaki 4-0 for the first time in four tries this season just after the boys match.
The Panthers swept the season series by the same 4-0 count, but only the last one by shutout; Kadena won by scores of 4-1 on March 17, 9-1 on March 29 — the worst loss in Kubasaki school history — and 6-2 on April 19.
“The last two weeks, we’ve been stressing defense, that defense wins championships. Today, we reached our goal; we shut them down,” Nguyen said after Schrock made six saves and even assisted on Dianne Abel’s 35th goal of the season and the 152nd of her career. Pacific season leader Jen Abel scored twice, giving her 42 on the season.