Hilton edges out ‘House in a thriller
Hilton College produced a brilliant performance in front of their home crowd to record a thrilling 3-2 win over Michaelhouse on Saturday morning after a tremendous tussle that ebbed and flowed.
“I am pleased with the effort and execution of the game plan. We knew they (Michaelhouse) were going to come out hot and I think we executed the plan quite nicely,” Damian Kimfley, the Hilton coach, told Supersport Schools Plus after the match.
Kimfley and his charges prepared well for the encounter. Those preparations included working on penalty corner variations to counter Michaelhouse’s fast runners.
With ‘House getting out fast and applying pressure, Hilton stopped and played a short ball a couple of times to the left to Ben Wilson, which eliminated the runners. Blessed with a powerful shot, Wilson went with the hit and it paid dividends.
The variation worked like a dream six minutes into the first chukka when Hilton drew first blood to go up 1-0.
Michaelhouse has put together a strong season, however, showing plenty of character along the way, and they soon fought their way back to level terms.
Their equaliser came with only a minute remaining in the first chukka, also from a penalty corner, with Thandanani Zuma striking off a rebound.
There was little difference between the sides, and it took good decision-making and pivoting when a plan stopped working for one team to get on top of things. That is what Hilton did.
In the final stages of the first half, though, they stuck with something that had worked previously, with Ben Wilson again executing a penalty corner variation to give the home side a 2-1 lead at halftime.
Michaelhouse remained composed and worked their way to an equaliser in the third quarter. A flowing move down the right flank ended with the ball being centred and Gordon Deutscher sweeping it into the back of the goalbox, past goalkeeper Kayson Holthauzen.
Hilton snatched the lead again when they won a penalty stroke and their captain Xavier Enslin took on the responsibility, confidently taking his chance.
Michaelhouse threw everything they had into the last few minutes. It looked as if they had scored with time almost up, but after consultation between the umpires an equaliser was ruled out and Hilton held on to score a nail-biting 3-2 win.
When they met in Balgowan, on the Punchbowl Astro, at the beginning of May, the teams drew 1-1. And while Hilton won on Saturday, it was close enough that the contest could have gone the other way. There truly was next to nothing between the teams, maybe just excellent preparation and a well-executed penalty corner variation.
Results
u19 – 1st: Hilton 3-2 Michaelhouse, 2nd: Hilton 1-0 Michaelhouse, 3rd: Hilton 2-1 Michaelhouse, 4th: Hilton 0-0 Michaelhouse, 5th: Hilton 4-2 Michaelhouse
u16 – Hilton A 2-1 Michaelhouse A; Hilton B 1-0 Michaelhouse B; Hilton C 2-3 Michaelhouse C; Hilton D 0-1 Michaelhouse D; Hilton E 1-3 Michaelhouse E
u14 – Hilton A 2-1 Michaelhouse A; Hilton B 2-1 Michaelhouse B; Hilton C 3-1 Michaelhouse C.
