Durban Girls’ College and Eunice one win away from St Mary’s final
Durban Girls’ College (DGC) and Eunice dominated Pool E on day three of the St Mary’s Hockey Festival to move on to the semi-finals of the prestigious tournament.
They were the dominant forces in Pool A and Pool B respectively on the first two days of the event, and they kept up their momentum as they motored their way into the final four.
In the semi-finals, DGC takes on St Stithians, while Eunice will fight it out with Paarl Gim.
On Saturday, DGC achieved what no other team had been able to do over the course of the first three days. They beat Eunice. If anyone was going to beat the Bloemfontein girls, however, it was going to be DGC, the team which had scored the most goals in the festival.
The defending champions had enjoyed a nine-match unbeaten run, winning seven and drawing two matches, during which they scored 27 goals and conceded just seven. Besides St Anne’s, no team had scored two or more goals against Eunice. Then they met DGC in their last match of the day on Saturday.
In a stunning display, coach Chardinay Penniston’s girls fired four goals past the defending champions, without reply, to emphatically lay claim to the top spot in Pool E, with Cara Baker, Emily Macquet, Ruby Kraus and Chelsey Woolf getting their names on the scoresheet.
Heading into that match, Eunice and DGC were level on points, and the result of the showdown would determine who finished first and who finished second in the pool.
Last year, DGC finished seventh at the St Mary’s Hockey Festival. This year, Penniston’s charges were determined to improve on that showing.
However, their performance at the recent DSG Festival did not suggest that they could dominate at this level. That was because Penniston was building a new team.
“I think the progression of this group has been a little slow, compared to last year,” Penniston said candidly. “But, having said that, this group’s development has been more meaningful. They are developing consistency the more they play together.”
Several of her players have exhibited moments of brilliance on the astro, like goalkeeper Ella Carstens, who stood tall and was an impregnable wall against an attacking Bloemhof earlier in the day. Her heroics helped DGC to a 2-0 win.
“They rely on each other and pull together as a team,” said Penniston.
DGC captain Emily Macquet and her teammates are happy and proud to have performed better than they did last year, but they did not come this far only to make it this far. They are hungry and determined to achieve more. They’re now focussed on outplaying Lance Louw’s Saints for a place in the title-decider.
Most teams retreat and focus on defence after Eunice registers a first goal because, once they get going, the Bloemfontein side rarely stops scoring.
Under Nika Coertzen’s guidance, the Bloemfontein school has run riot and scored the second-most goals at the festival this year. However, when they faced St Anne’s, the girls from Hilton chose a different approach. They decided to fight fire with fire.
St Anne’s, now coached by long-time Oranje coach Morne Odendaal, went 0-1 down to a goal by Bianca Rees-Gibbs. However, their positive approach was rewarded with a goal with 12 minutes left on the clock.
But Eunice skipper Trusten Barnard and her teammates were not about to settle for a draw, and they responded almost immediately with a spectacular Bianca Rees-Gibbs’ goal, which was good enough to grace any highlights’ reel.
Again, St Anne’s responded with an attack on the Eunice goal.
Coertzen had focussed on fortifying her side’s defence this season and before the clash with St Anne’s, Eunice had scored 22 goals and conceded only four. But their watertight defence was unable to stop Ella Shuttleworth, who fired in a brilliant individual goal to level matters.
Rees-Gibbs and Eunice were not about to be denied victory, though. She showed why she was a member of the South African u16 team last year, netting her hat-trick goal to win the contest.
Next up, though, Coertzen’s charges will have to dust themselves off and put their loss to DGC behind them as they prepare to meet an in-form Paarl Gim – a team that has shown it is as good on defence as it is on attack – for a place in the final.
Pool E Results
Eunice 3-1 Menlopark, Bloemhof 0-2 Durban Girls’ College, Affies 0-0 St Anne’s, Eunice 3-2 St Anne’s, Bloemhof 1-2 Menlopark, Affies 0-0 DGC, Bloemhof 1-1 St Anne’s, Affies 0-1 Menlopark, Eunice 0-4 DGC
