Last Friday the Premier team played Auckland Grammar School (AGS) II. A tense first quarter saw scores tied at 1 each, with AGS taking the early lead. An excellent second and third quarter performance ended with a 6-1 margin in our favour and victory nearly assured.
The fourth quarter saw a combination of risky attacking and defensive lapses after establishing dominance and the game got close. While never in jeopardy (we were still leading by 3 with 90 seconds left), we ended up surrendering a couple of easy goals which serve as good lessons in ball management for later contests.
Goal scorers were Jordan Lane, Keith Spencer-Edgar, Jackson Astley, Connor Tomoana and George Brown, who put himself on the scoresheet for the first time since converting to playing in the field from the goal. The final score was 7-6 in our favour.
Against a more skilled Sacred Heart College side, the Senior B1 team lost 8-5. We had our chances but failed to execute and finish off as we have in past games. Accurate passing to the centre forward would have resulted in a higher goal score and we will be working on this in practice. Good goals were scored by Amosa Gould and Alex Williams.
King's B2 were thoroughly beaten 9-4 by Glendowie College. They had better tactics and a full compliment of players, hence not suffering from tiredness as much. We did manage to slow their advance towards the end however and a few good goals were scored by Ethan Wichman, Joshua Tsang and Maric Wichman. Unfortunately though, we never really threatened their lead and struggled to get back and defend.
The B3 side had a bye.
The Girls' team played a tight, low scoring game against Macleans College. We were several players down but, even so, had opportunities to salvage a draw near the final whistle. Ashleigh Tonkin made three or four characteristic one-on-one saves to keep us in the hunt for some points. Strong defence by captain Courtney Varney all but neutralised their key #7 player. Maddy Smart made a welcome return to the team, scoring our first goal after she swam free of her marker and drove into the five metre zone. Brooke Hulbert chimed in with our second goal by shooting from beyond eight metres off a free-throw! The game was tied 2-2 at half-time and we fought hard during the third quarter to stop them scoring again after they went up 2-3 in the first minute. The final quarter saw us denied a goal after good work by Izzy Brown saw her earn a foul, retireve the ball, shoot and score – only to be ruled out for a technical reason. Final score was 2-3 to Macleans College.
The Juniors did not play this weekend.
