Comeback Season

Our Damien men's soccer team is out for revenge. Damien wasn’t always good at soccer but the team always lost with pride and tried their best every season. The team started somewhere between the 80s-90s and actually shut down in 2010 but revived in 2013. Every year they come up short. Last year the boys didn’t do too hot going 0-10 with a lot of injured players. This year though, they are looking to change that all around and put Damien soccer on the map and hopefully make it to the state tournament. 

During the preseason, the team went 1-3-2 which is one of the best pre seasons they’ve had in a while. The win came from their game against Kaimuki where they scored three goals against Kaimuki which led to 3-0. In that game the team looked really solid; especially their defense allowing no goals in 90 minutes of play time. With the addition of freshman Samuel Kawakami and veteran Brandon Chee the team is looking to steamroll the competition this year with their first opponent being the Iolani Red Raiders on December 14th. The Red Raiders have always had a good soccer team, just last year they went 7-2-3 making it to the state tournament but lost 1-0 to Aiea. 

Ke Ali’i asked Senior Captain Zachary Ng his thoughts so far on the team this year and said, “I feel like this team is going somewhere. It’s not stuck.” He also said that he feels this team is “This team feels more like a team than an individual sport.” We also asked Zach who the best players on the team are and he said Shysen because he is a leader on the field, can identify an issue, and can get back and forth on the field. He also said Roscoe because he is a great striker. And lastly he said Deric because he can get up and down the field and is a good midfielder. Finally we asked Zach how the team has changed over time and he said “the team has vastly improved.” 

The monarchs kicked off there season against the Iolani Red Raiders. For the first 35 minutes of the game the monarchs kept the score 0-0. Then with some miss communication, the Raiders were able to score two goals late in the first half. In the second half Iolani was able to keep there momentum scoring 3 more goals and ending the game off with a 5-0 win over our Monarchs. The boys played a hard game considering they are top 5 in the state. The monarchs will play Le jardin next and Ke'alii would like to wish you boys a good luck.