This time it took only 18 seconds for the Hawaii soccer team to fall into yet another hole it would not escape.
UC Davis’ Haley Hughes scored the quickest goal in UH opponent history on an immediate counterattack and the Aggies rolled to a 4-0 win over the Rainbow Wahine in Davis, Calif., on Thursday.
The Wahine (3-12-1, 0-6 Big West) were already out of contention for the conference tournament before the match, and still have two more to play, including at Long Beach State (9-5-3, 4-2) on Sunday.
UH was shut out for the third straight game, and now has been outscored a combined 21-3 in its six conference games.
"I can’t even write this stuff," coach Michele Nagamine said in a phone interview. "I can’t even make this stuff up. It’s just so far-fetched.
"I’m like, what the (heck) else is going to happen? I don’t get it. You couldn’t script this stuff out in ‘Worst Season Ever, Volume I,’ it’s so bad."
Previously, the quickest goal into a game by a UH opponent was 58 seconds by BYU’s Althea Graham on Oct. 11, 1997.
"I did a double take. … I was like, ‘what just happened?’ " Nagamine said. "There was a turnover in the midfield … the ball took a weird bounce, right off of (UH defender) Dani Crawford, and (Davis) just crossed it in and (Hughes) flicked it. I couldn’t even believe it. I’ve never seen anything like it."
Davis (9-6-2, 2-3-1) played with high emotion on its senior night.
"I actually said, ‘Don’t tell me it’s going to be that kind of game today,’ " Nagamine said of the opening score. "But the one thing I will give to Davis, they were super high pressure."
The Aggies added an Ashley Kawasaki goal in the 15th minute to make it 2-0 at halftime.
Center back Paige Okazaki received two yellow cards on her birthday, equaling an automatic red and an ejection. Her second came in the 48th minute on what Nagamine described as a questionable call. UH played a player down for the remainder of the game, during which Davis tacked on two more scores — including one right after Okazaki’s dismissal.
The shooting margin was reasonably close, 14-10 in Davis’ favor, but the accuracy wasn’t. Nine of the Aggies’ attempts were on frame, compared to just two for UH.
Junior Erica Young started in goal for the second straight game in place of the struggling Monk Berger and recorded five saves.
Okazaki will miss the LBSU game by rule, further impacting an already depleted UH back line.
"You know, we’re just going to keep moving people around. We don’t have any choice," Nagamine said. "The reality for us right now is we’re having to depend on people we didn’t think we’d depend on for another year to two years."
