Slick Michaelhouse wins at Pretoria Boys High
Michaelhouse produced a polished performance to defeat Pretoria Boys High School (PBHS) 3-1 at PBHS on Saturday morning.
Coach Nick Bérichon‘s side was the only one of the three KwaZulu-Natal teams visiting Gauteng to win their hockey derby.
Clifton drew with their hosts, St David’s Marist Inanda, and St Charles College lost to St Stithians College respectively.
No one gets an easy ride against Clifton, but, frustratingly for the Durban school, they’ve come out on the wrong side of many one-goal games this season and that was again the case against St David’s, who won 2-1. St Stithians, meanwhile, outclassed St Charles 8-3.
“I’m so pleased with the number of chances we created,” Bérichon said after Michaelhouse’s win. “We were fast and dynamic on attack and opened them up.”
Although they were the visitors, Michaelhouse didn’t allow PBHS the luxury of settling down, dominating territory and possession early on, which led to their opener, scored by Brunton Bigalke in the first chukka.
Bérichon’s charges made good use of space, connected well with their passes, and their tight pressing led to numerous turnovers. They, then, turned that possession into a second goal in the second quarter, with William Gilson providing the finish.
Playing in front of their home faithful, Boys High found a response in the third chukka to half the visitors’ lead, scoring from a scorching tomahawk after a sweeping counterattack.
Michaelhouse, though, had the final say, with Henry Love bagging their third in the final chukka to restore their two-goal cushion. It was his ninth goal of the season.
Love’s goal was the coup de grace that Michaelhouse lacked when they fell 2-3 to Northwood recently.
Bérichon was pleased to see his charges translate what they had worked on at training into a match situation, especially since they did it far from familiar surroundings.
“It’s not easy to come up here and win but I thought that we dominated the game, so I’m very pleased we got the result,” Bérichon declared.
RESULTS
Michaelhouse 3-1 Pretoria Boys High
St David’s Marist Inanda 2-2 Clifton College
St Stithians College 8-3 St Charles College
