Eunice and Bloemhof dominate Pool A on day one of St Mary’s Festival
Eunice and Bloemhof were in brilliant form on day one of the annual St Mary’s Hockey Festival. The two sides were unbeaten and are tied at the top of Pool A and are only separated by goal difference after Thursday’s action in Johannesburg.
The 32-team hockey extravaganza is in its 24th year, after taking off with a mere 12 teams in 2000.
Spectators were treated to a thriller befitting a final when Eunice and Bloemhof faced off on the Nathan Field in the last Pool A match of the day.
Heading into the match, coach Jenny King‘s girls had pulled off three convincing victories against Pretoria High School for Girls, Herschel, and Afrikaanse Höer Meisieskool (Affies), scoring nine goals without reply in those wins.
Bloemhof’s performances belied the short preseason King had with her team, “Being an athletic school, they had a shorter preseason, and we had to try to get the basics in place in a short period,” she said.
Coach Nika Coertzen, on the other hand, has an inexperienced side on her hands. Eunice lost many players from their successful 2023 team that won the St Mary’s Festival and finished the year ranked number one in the country. This season, her team is made up of three grade 12s, three grade 9s, and five grade 10s. Half of those players are u16.
They had endured a few tough outings before the St Mary’s Festival. “Our first festival was difficult, but I understood that the girls needed time to adjust. There is a huge difference between u14 and u18 hockey. We’ve had 12 pre-season games, which I think gave them confidence that they can compete,” said Coertzen.
That confidence showed in how they dealt with high-pressure moments throughout the day. Eunice scored nine goals against DF Malan, Affies, and Roedean and conceded only one to DF Malan.
In their match against a Bloemhof side in red-hot form, Eunice held their own, defending and attacking in equal measure. The blockbuster tie ended in a 0-0 draw.
“This tournament is about growth. It’s not about coming and winning. Of course, winning is great, but we want to try to use these 12 games to prepare for the rest of the season,” King explained while refusing to get carried away by her team’s strong showing on the first day.
Coertzen also had her feet firmly on the ground, preferring to see the bigger picture instead of celebrating too early. “My girls have a lot of ambition, determination and discipline, which makes things a little easier for a coach. Right now, we are in the building phase as a unit, but I’m excited about the next three years and what we will produce,” she reckoned.
Third-placed Clarendon also enjoyed a good showing on Thursday. Coach Luwan Sedras’ charges started the day with a 1-0 win over Roedean, which helped settle their nerves. They followed that victory with another 1-0 win, this time over Pretoria High School for Girls. Later in the day, they came up short against Herschel, going down 0-1.
While impressed by his players’ performances on day one, Sedras thinks his team has a bit of a distance to go before they are settled as a unit, especially since Clarendon lost all but one of their strikers from last year’s side.
His main focus, with the rest of his coaching unit, has been in converting midfielders into strikers. “Scoring wins you games. We can defend, we can control midfield, but we need to score goals. So, that has been our focus this year,” he said.
Sedras hopes that his charges will find the back of the net more in their next few games, particularly against the in-form duo of Eunice and Bloemhof, whom they meet on day two.
Pool A Results
Eunice 3-1 DF Malan, Clarendon 1-0 Roedean, PHSG 0-5 Bloemhof, Eunice 2-0 Affies, DF Malan 0-0 Roedean, Herschel 0-3 Bloemhof, Clarendon 1-0 PHSG, Eunice 4-0 Roedean, Affies 0-1 Bloemhof, DF Malan 2-0 PHSG, Herschel 1-0 Clarendon, Eunice 0-0 Bloemhof.
