It’s Herschel versus Pearson for a place in Girls Challenge final
Herschel and Pearson will go head-to-head in the semifinals of the Belgotex Sport Girls Hockey Challenge on Saturday, at Paarl Gimnasium.
They remain in the running for the title in the inaugural edition of the tournament that has attracted some of the best hockey-playing girls’ schools from across South Africa.
Herschel beat Durban Girls’ College (DGC) 3-1 to punch their ticket to the final four, while Pearson defeated Collegiate 3-2 in a thrilling Gqeberha rivalry.
They meet at 11:15 on Saturday morning.
In the quarterfinals, DGC found a chink in Herschel’s defence to open the scoring. That was the first time the Cape Town school had conceded in the tournament. However, it wasn’t enough to stop Herschel, who replied with two goals from Emily Dickinson and another from Katherine Featherstone.
Heading into the semi-finals, Herschel has scored 17 goals and conceded only one. They’ve staked their claim as a title contender.
After a goalless first chukka, DGC claimed the lead five minutes into the second quarter of the quarterfinal when they converted a short corner. Asanele Zuma injected the ball and then headed for the near post to receive a return pass before coolly tapping the ball in.
Herschel issued a swift response. They applied pressure on the DGC defence, forced a turnover, and won a penalty corner after moving into the Durban team’s circle. A minute later, the ladies from Claremont equalised from the PC.
For the next 21 minutes, the sides were tied. Herschel, though, broke the deadlock when they converted another penalty corner deep into the third chukka.
A third goal destroyed DGC’s hopes of a comeback. The goal-scoring move began when Herschel intercepted a DGC pass and attacked down the right flank. From there, they were able to win a penalty corner and its successful conversion, with only three minutes remaining, pretty much sealed the deal.
In the other quarterfinal, which pitted Pearson – the winner of Pool C after two wins and a draw – and Collegiate against each other, Jenna Coetzee and Kerrin Gillies fired Collegiate in front in the first half. Pearson’s response was outstanding. They came out guns blazing in the second stanza and overturned the deficit through goals from Annemi de Villiers and Chanelle Venter. A second goal from De Villiers, then, carried Pearson to a pulsating 3-2 win.
Collegiate led 1-0 after the first chukka, scoring just a minute from its end. Then, five minutes from halftime, they made it to 2-0, with both goals coming from penalty corners.
Pearson fought their way back and cut the lead in half in the third chukka, thanks to their persistence in the Collegiate circle, which earned them a penalty stroke. That made it 1-2 with eight minutes remaining in the match.
The goal breathed new life into the legs of Pearson players and they upped their intensity, and soon it was 2-2. They had momentum on their side and, with 30 seconds left in the game, they found a winner to upset the recently-crowned National All Girls’ Festival champions.
RESULTS
Quarterfinals
St Mary’s DSG Kloof 1-0 Waterkloof
Paarl Gim 3-0 Rustenburg
Pearson 3-2 Collegiate
Herschel 3-1 DGC
Last Pool Matches
Pool A
Durban Girls’ College 9-0 Cornwall Hill
Herschel 2-0 Oranje
Pool B
St Mary’s Waverley 1-0 Springfield
Paarl Gim 4-0 Fairmont
Pool C
Pearson 4-1 Somerset College
Waterkloof 4-0 Stellenberg
Pool D
St Cyprian’s 1-1 Reddam Constantia
St Mary’s DSG 4-2 St Stithians
Pool E
Rustenburg 2-0 Durbanville
Collegiate 1-1 Garsfontein
