School tournament roundup

Football
Timaru Boys' High School's first XI football team's impressive run at their South Island football tournament wilted on the final day, when they were beaten 3-0 by Marlborough Boys' College.

Having missed out on making the final in Christchurch after losing a penalty shootout, TBHS were no match for the counter-attacking style of the boys from Marlborough.

TBHS coach Gary Ivamy said the game was one too many.

"We were close to the final, but they were just more up for the game [yesterday]."

Ivamy said his side struggled to deal with how quickly Marlborough turned defence in to attack.

He said they could have no excuses for "running out of puff".

"They [Marlborough] only had 13 players, so we can't really say they had as much right as we did to be tired. They were just up for it more than we were."

Ivamy said his team found it tough to create chances to score.

"We went close, put a couple over the (crossbar), created a few chances, but we struggled a bit."

He said Nathan McNicol had another strong game.

A fourth-place finish was a satisfactory result, according to the coach.

Ivamy said with 12 of the 16 players in the squad returning for next year, the future looked promising for TBHS football.

Hockey
The Timaru Girls' High School first XI hockey team have won the Audrey Timlin Secondary School Hockey Tournament in Greymouth.

TGHS beat Waimea College, from Nelson, on penalty strokes 3-2 in the final yesterday, after the game was locked at 0-0 after extra time.

The 3-2 win on penalty strokes reversed the 0-3 defeat TGHS had to Waimea in round-robin play.

TGHS coach Robin Clarkson said it was a tight, even game, with neither side having many chances to score.

"I think we had three penalties corners, and Waimea only had one.

"Most of our penalty corners came in the last couple of minutes."

Clarkson was hesitant to single out any of his players for praise.

"It was just a real team performance, I wouldn't want to single anyone out because everyone had their part to play."

He said even with the earlier defeat to Waimea, he was confident of a good result heading in to the final.

"Even though we lost 3-0, I knew it was just couple of times they caught us out on the counter [attack].

The win will see TGHS move up to the second-tier hockey tournament next year.

"All the girls got the bit between their teeth and worked really hard this week."

Timaru Boys' High School first XI hockey team will play off for ninth and 10th at the Indian Shield Secondary School Hockey Tournament.

A 4-2 win over Lindisfarne College, from Hastings, assured them a top-10 spot on Thursday.

TBHS started brightly, thanks to a reverse stick shot from Jayden Hardacre in the third minute.

Six minutes later, Lindisfarne replied when a couple of missed tackles allowed them to put a shot past Ross Hayman in goal.

TBHS continued to apply pressure to the Lindisfarne defence, and Jayden Hardacre soon had his second goal, after pouncing on a couple of rebounded shots from himself and James Todd.

Lindisfarne tried to equalise but Mark McGillen,George Boyd, Matt Dockrill and Mark Southgate repulsed all attacks.

As TBHS' confidence grew, the defence started to move forward.

Southgate found himself taking a sideline hit in his attacking third, and when no-one tackled him, he moved to the circle-edge and calmly slotted the ball past the goalie for a 3-1 lead.

With a two-goal lead at halftime, a frantic start to the second half ensued, with both teams keeping the goalkeepers busy with fast, attacking plays.

It was Lindisfarne who breathed life in to the contest, with a goal from a penalty corner.

Both teams tried hard to find something extra over the next 10 minutes with a lot of good tackles, quick turnovers, fast passing and pressure on both defences.

A clever tackle by Southgate saw him deliver a nice ball to Hardacre, who off-loaded to Ben Smithson.

He evaded a couple of tackles and pushed the ball between two defenders, where Small, having started a run from deep, got into the circle and deflected the ball past the goalie for a game-securing 4-2 lead.

Burnside High School, from Christchurch await TBHS for the ninth and 10th playoff game.The Timaru Boys' High School second XI hockey team will play for third and fourth at their secondary schools tournament, after they went down 1-3 to Darfield High School, from Canterbury.

TBHS started slowly and were quickly on the back foot and Darfield scored three unanswered goals in the first half.

A gutsy TBHS managed to pull a goal back in the second half, but it was not enough to progress to the final.

They now had the prospect of playing Cashmere High School from Christchurch for third or fourth place.

- © Fairfax NZ News