After a determined display on the turf on a blistering hot day, Our Lady of Fatima secured the Durban North Regional title in the SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Hockey Challenge on Saturday 12 March.
Our Lady of Fatima win Durban North Regional Schoolgirls’ Hockey Challenge
The winning team met host school, Danville Park Girls’ High School in the regional final. From the whistle, Fatima pushed hard at the Danville defence earning their first short corner after 150 seconds of play. The home team defenders stood strong as the visitors tried various moves from all directions, trying to pierce through and net a goal.
With majority of the play taking place mostly in the Danville half, Fatima finally found a hole in the Danville back line. With three quarters of the game played, Fatima set up for their fourth and final short corner, the ball was injected towards the castle who quickly moved the ball and found a fast and fiesty Caprese Bentson who slotted in the regional winning goal.
“That goal was amazing. The short corner was meant to be a slip to the left, and a slap to Caprese on far posts but the runners were extremely fast, so we had to change it up. We passed it straight to Caprese who flicked it into the top right of the net. She is a brilliant player.” enthused Fatima’s captain, Sarah Bright after the game.
She continued, “The day went really well for us, we got better and better with each game played. Thanks to our coaches who did an amazing job. Overall it was a great day.”
Chatting about the final, Bright stated, “We started off quite slow, but we had had quite a big gap after our last game so our intensity was quite low, but we all encouraged each other and started playing faster and more of our game. We played well and composed. We connected with each other and connected well as a team.”
Coach for Fatima, Jacinta Jubb said, “The girls had a really good day today. We started strong, got all wins across except for our last pool game which was a little bit of an inconsistent game for us. We scored some good goals; with 13 goals in total in the pool stages. And then we cemented ourselves a place in the final. So was impressed with how they managed their consistency throughout the day.”
Commenting on the final game of the day, Jubb shared, “It was an amazing final. It is always a battle to go up against Danville. The girls held their own and implemented our structure and plan. They fought the one-on-one battles hard. And it was a really nice, confident goal at a short corner to clinch the win for us.”
At the end of the pool games, the top three teams all had 13 points with identical scorecards showing three wins and all three finishing on a goalless draw. Fatima were the outright winner of Pool A and in Pool B, Ashton International College and Danville Park Girls’ High both levelling up in first spot. Danville were awarded top of their pool as they had netted 13 goals to Ashton’s 10 during their four games.
The Most Promising Umpire for the day was awarded to Northlands Girls’ High School’s Tatum Kroutz.
Following the Durban North fixture, the action moved to Westville Girls’ High School the next day for the Highway Regional where St Mary’s DSG won. This weekend’s winners join Pionier Hoërskool (Northern KZN Regional); St Anne’s College (PMB North Regional) and St John’s D.S.G. (PMB Central Regional) at the Grand Finals that takes place in July at St Mary’s DSG.
The challenge has a four week break before heading to the Three Schools Trust Astro Turf for the Durban South Regional hosted by Kingsway High School on Sunday 10 April.
Overall results
1 Our Lady of Fatima 13 points; 2 Danville Park Girls’ High School 13 points; 3 Ashton International College 13 points; 4 = Reddam uMhlanga 9 points 4= Crawford La Lucia 9 points; 6 Crawford North Coast 8 points; 7= Curro Mt Richmore 4 points; 7= Northland Girls’ High School 4 points; 9= Durban North College 0 points 9= Reddam Ballito 0 points
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