Rainbow Wahine trounce Pacific

Well, that was emphatic.

On the heels of the UH football team’s big 59-41 win over Navy at Aloha Stadium, the Hawaii soccer team earned a rare road runaway victory on Sunday, as they rolled into Stockton, Calif., and ransacked the place to the tune of a 5-0 win over Pacific of the West Coast Conference. UH (3-1) picked up its third straight win, and second after it had two home games canceled due to the threat of Hurricane Lane.

It matched the most lopsided UH win against a Division I opponent in Michele Nagamine’s eight seasons (5-0 at home over Nevada in 2011). It was UH’s most goals against a D-I team since a 5-4 win at UNLV in 2012.

“Every now and then you get a game like this where everything’s rolling on all cylinders, everything’s clicking,” Nagamine said in a postgame phone interview. “We got in a zone early. The kids have been amazing with their preparation, their discipline and approach to how we prepare for games. That was very, very evident today.”

Nagamine credited new assistant coach Rachael Doyle for keeping the team ready with a conditioning regimen, which paid off in two hot daytime road games.

UH struck fast and hard to sweep its two-game West Coast road trip, piling up three goals in the first 18 minutes of play. UH’s four first-half goals tied a program record set against Hawaii Pacific in 2007, as Pacific dropped to 2-4.

Scoring goals for Hawaii were, in order: McKenzie Moore (1st of season, 1st career); Raisa Strom-Okimoto (3rd of season, 13th career); Daelenn Tokunaga (1st of season, 1st career); Cristina Drossos (1st of season, 1st career); and Leialoha Medeiros (2nd of season, 3rd career).

Picking up assists were five different players on the five goals: Natalie Daub, Drossos, Medeiros, Izzy Deutsch and Sarah Lau. Goalkeeper Lex Mata had five saves in her second shutout in three games.

The Wahine even left a couple on the table against a team it lost to 1-0 on Oahu last season; Moore earned a penalty kick in the second half that Strom-Okimoto was wide on. And there were two 1-on-1s with the Tigers goalkeeper that wasn’t converted.

Of course, that’s nitpicking in a 5-0 win. UH improved to 4-6-4 all-time against Pacific, including the first win in Stockton since UH did it in its inaugural NCAA season of 1994.

Given how well UH played, it makes you wonder what would’ve happened in the canceled home games vs. Montana and Arizona State.

“I’m still not over it. I want them back. I wish there was a way the universe could align so we get those games back, both Montana and Arizona State,” Nagamine said. “I think the way it worked out for us was good because one, we got an extra week of rest. Number two, a lot of teams don’t know a lot about us because we didn’t play many games before coming up here. There wasn’t a lot of information on Hawaii because we hadn’t played; we only had (Texas) A&M and Bowling Green. So, I think that made us hard to scout. And you hear, ‘eh, they start six freshmen, they only have two seniors,’ it leads the opponent to think, ‘kind of a rebuilding year.’ But our players have really stepped it up. They’ve really embraced their roles.”

Strom-Okimoto has goals in three straight, beginning with her golden goal shot against Bowling Green. She needs two more goals to crack the Wahine career top 10.