Paul Roos defeats St Stithians in classy clash at Founders
Sunday’s action at the Founder’s Hockey Festival included a mouthwatering showdown between Paul Roos and St Stithians, two of 2023’s best teams, and they showed that they remain elite in a fascinating battle.
In the early going, Saints took the game to Paul Roos, who took a while to settle down. The Stellenbosch side, however, was defensively sound.
Once St Stithians approached the final third of the field, they were stymied time after time. They did string some nice moves together at the back and in the midfield, but PRG worked effectively as a unit to keep Saints in check.
In the second chukka, the Johannesburg school thought they had taken the lead from a penalty corner. A shot hit the backboard, but it had been too high and dangerous on its way there and the goal was disallowed.
Paul Roos then pulled off a sucker punch, striking shortly after that with a field goal.
After a slowish start, they had settled in well and while Saints enjoyed sufficient possession, not much of it happened up front.
After half-time, SA u21 star Reuben Sendzel, a serious threat at penalty corner time, beat the goalkeeper low and to his right from the set piece to double the PRG advantage.
Saints kept battling hard, but it became clear that it was going to be Paul Roos’s day.
Later, though, Saints took out their frustrations on the Northwood 2nd XI, winning 6-0.
The Northwood 1st side is touring Argentina and, given the second team’s competitiveness – they drew with Rondebosch and Dale on Saturday – coach Justin Collins and his team are surely going to make some noise when they return to South Africa.
Meanwhile, Paul Roos kept their pristine defensive record intact later in the day when they recorded a 4-0 win over Affies. The Pretoria school had beaten Dale College 3-1 in their first match on Sunday.
PRG’s big rivals, SACS, outplayed the Northwood 2nd XI 8-0 in the morning, and the SACS’ train kept chugging along in the afternoon, when they handed Queen’s College a 5-0 defeat. Litha Kraai dazzled with some rocket-propelled reverse stick goals.
In the first match of the day, Queen’s had fallen 0-2 behind Parktown Boys’ High within the first four minutes of their game. After that, they gave a much better account of themselves and ended up going 1-2 down.
Kearsney College, who won both of their day one matches, played to a 1-1 draw with Rondebosch at midday. They would be disappointed about the manner in which they conceded.
While leading 1-0, they attempted to play too much hockey at the back in an effort to exit, allowed themselves to be closed down, and were turned over. ‘Bosch latched onto the loose ball and stuck home the opportunity to level the scores. In the end, 1-1 was probably a fair result in a scrappy contest.
The hosts found their goal-scoring mojo, however, when they rolled to a 4-0 win over Parktown.
After two days of action, they have posted three wins and a draw, but their toughest assignment awaits them on Monday, when they take on Paul Roos in the event’s last match. It will be preceded by a marquee match-up between SACS and St Stithians.
RESULTS
Parktown 2-1 Queen’s
SACS 8-0 Northwood
Paul Roos 2-0 St Stithians
Affies 3-1 Dale
Kearsney 1-1 Rondebosch
SACS 5-0 Queen’s
St Stithians 6-0 Northwood
Rondebosch 3-1 Dale
Paul Roos 4-0 Affies
Kearsney 4-0 Parktown
FIXTURES
Monday, 25 March
07:30 – Affies vs Rondebosch; 08:35 – Dale vs Parktown; 09:40 – Northwood vs Queen’s; 10:45 – SACS vs St Stithians; 11:50 – Kearsney vs Paul Roos
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