Wynberg signs off in style on the Astro of Dreams
After a challenging start to their hockey season, the Wynberg Boys’ High first hockey team played themselves into form and finished off their campaign with a string of stirring victories.
During the week, coach Ben Wiley’s boys outplayed Fairmont High 6-1. Then, on Friday night, in their final outing on the Astro of Dreams, they put DF Malan to the sword, romping to a 7-0 victory over the visitors.
Putting it all together in their final outing, Ethan Lee, Ethan Daniels, and Beni Hansen all delivered goals for Wynberg, while Dayle Gertson and Zach Gibbon doubled up, bagging a brace each.
Those wins came after a disappointing 0-5 defeat against their southern suburbs rivals, South African College High School (SACS), the week before, which was a rare blip in an outstanding second half of the season.
Before that clash, Wiley’s boys had been in superb form and they had, arguably, ended 2024 as the second-best team behind SACS in the south of the city.
Their form picked up in term three when action resumed after the SASHOC National Weeks.
On the first weekend, Wynberg had a bye, but they put their time to good use and were on song in a convincing 4-0 midweek win over the UK’s Repton School.
Then, on the weekend that followed, they welcomed Paarl Gimnasium, the winners of the Cape Town International Hockey Tournament, to their home turf. Wiley’s boys hit their straps, coming away with a convincing 4-2 win, courtesy of goals from the skipper Jordan Paulsen, Seth Trantraal, Zac Gibbon, and Dayyaan Brown.
The following week, Wynberg was set an important task of trying to level their season’s series against Bishops Diocesan College. In the sides’ first meeting, it was coach Ryan Julius’s team that had claimed an impressive 3-0 win over their rivals at the Woodlands AstroTurf.
Since that defeat, however, a lot had changed and Wynberg was now playing some of its best hockey of the season. They were intent on avenging that loss against a Bishops team that had lost its way after a searing start to their 2024 campaign.
Wynberg duly reversed their earlier loss and claimed a victory they desperately sought, with Paulsen and company outscoring their opponents 3-1. Liam Kleintjies netted the opener before the captain stole the spotlight by scoring twice in the second half.
As the season wound towards its conclusion, Wynberg added another southern suburbs’ scalp, scoring a narrow 1-0 win over Rondebosch Boys’ High.
Ahead of them lay the toughest challenge of their season, a meeting with an in-form SACS team, rated by many as the best side in South Africa, at The Brewery.
When the sides had clashed earlier in the season, Wynberg had held their own, going down just 0-1. On this occasion, though, playing away from home, they were overrun, with SACS storming to a 5-0 victory.
Wynberg needed to quickly put that result behind them as their last two matches approached. They did that, scoring 13 goals and conceding only once in their last two matches.
“The boys gelled in the second half of the season and, except for the SACS result, it was very positive,” Wiley told SuperSport Schools Plus.
“The start of this week was flat due to the SACS loss, but the boys rallied nicely and put the focus on the matrics’ last games as inspiration.”
Wiley identified one of the main reasons for his side’s third-term spurt, explaining: “The guys who came back from IPT came back to school hungry and ready to work hard for the badge. They added so much more to the team environment.”
Friday’s big win over DF Malan was the last outing for Wynberg’s grade 12 learners – Dayle Gertson, Ethan Lee, Jordan Paulsen, Zach Raizenberg, Dayyaan Brown, Beni Hansen, Caleb Schilder, and Liam Kleintjies – and they made sure they signed off in style to bring the curtain down on a 2024 campaign that saw the team playing to its potential in the latter stages of the season.
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