Saturday, 1 June, saw Union High School’s hockey girls take on Woodridge College in what proved to be a challenging, yet competitive encounter.
To start, the u/16B team lost their encounter 2 – 4, the u/16A team lost 1 – 4 and the second team won 3 – 1.
The first team girls then took the turf, with the first quarter starting with a fast pace, catching Union’s defense on the back foot from the push back.After absorbing an immense amount of pressure, the Union team girls went 1 – 0 down after the 10th minute. Although the girls worked hard, the pressure mounted again and the first quarter finished with Union 2 – 0 down.
The Union girls fought back hard in the second quarter, showing skill and determination. Henzé Jaftha found the back of the net after a beautiful pass from Marché Green to close the score line to 2 – 1. Woodridge quickly fought back and scored a third goal. This seemed to light the fire again for Union and Henzé converted another beautiful goal. After another moment of weakness in defense, Woodridge converted again to end the second quarter with a final score of 4 – 2 in favour of Woodridge.
Although the Union girls showed guts and determination in the last two quarters, they weren’t able to hold defensive lines or stick to the game plan, leading to an influx of goals from Woodridge. “We definitely competed and the final score is not a true reflection of the level of hockey played on the day,” said coach Mr. Alvin August. “The Union girls missed excellent opportunities and allowed poor decision making in defense to let in easy goals against us.”
A beautiful short corner that worked perfectly, allowed Union to remind Woodridge of their attacking ability with a third and final goal for the Union attack. The final score stood at 3 – 9 in Woodridge’s favour.
“It was a privilege to compete against a competitive, skilled team like Woodridge and the girls should be extremely proud of their overall team effort and hockey played on the day,” concluded Mr. August.