SIS rocks HS girls soccer start; MHS, KHS draw

Saipan International School Lady Geckos rocked the pitch at the start of the NMIFA-PSS Girls High School Interscholastic Soccer League as they won against Saipan Southern High School Lady Mantas, 8-2, last Tuesday at the NMI Soccer Training Center in Koblerville.

Meanwhile, Marianas High School Lady Dolphins and Kagman High School Lady Ayuyus ended in a 5-5 draw.

The Lady Geckos dominated Lady Mantas from the get-go, with more push and attacks toward their goal. SSHS strikers were almost always defended tightly so that they could not get clear shots—either their attempts were too wide, or they were blocked at the last second.

Rosie Saralu broke the ice first as she landed the first goal of the game in the first minute, but the Lady Geckos quickly replied with multiple goals within a span of 20 minutes.

By the 20th minute, SIS led, 4-1, as goals were made by Irin Chung, Kaithlyn Chavez, and Audrey Castro. More attempts were made by Saralu at SIS’ goal, but to no avail, while SIS’s firing squad kept busy.

Chavez went on to complete the hat-trick in the 35th minute, then added one more for good measure. Audrey Castro made it 7-1 in the 45th minute before Saralu scored SSHS’ second goal of the game two minutes later.

SIS didn’t let up and Serin Chung scored one more goal in the 49th minute to win by six goals, 8-2.

The defending champions, Lady Dolphins, had a tougher time against the Lady Ayuyus as both teams hit the ground running at full speed to start the season.

Back-and-forth action saw the lead sway from either teams, with MHS on top, 3-2 at the end of the first half. The momentum shifted and KHS found their groove as they pressured MHS’ defense on every corner.

Pia Ngewakl took matters into her own hands as she scored all of KHS’ goals, and scored the last goal of the game in the 48th minute to tie it up, much to the dismay of the Lady Dolphins.

MHS had a 5-4 lead in the 46th minute, but slipped up a couple minutes later and allowed Ngewakl to score the tying goal. Both teams desperately scrambled to shoot at least one more goal to steal the victory, but failed to do so and settled for a draw.

MHS’ Tamia Kileleman-Hix and Rizza Relucio scored two goals each, while Raven Anderson scored the fifth goal.