Nail-biting matches for Union against Stirling
Union’s hockey teams travelled to East London this past weekend, to take on Stirling High School in a nail-biting hockey encounter on Saturday, 11 May.
In matches that were closely contested to the very end, Union’s U/16B team beat Stirling 1 – 0, the U/16As drew 0 – 0, the second team won their match 1 – 0 and the first team drew 2 – 2.
Unions U/16B girls kicked off the day with a 1 – 0 victory over Stirling’s u/16B’s. The scores were level until the last 10 seconds of the match when Union was awarded a penalty corner. A perfect set piece saw Tayla Kingwill convert a cracking shot at goal, allowing Union to be the victors.
U/16A girls, who faced Stirling’s U/16As, played to a goalless draw. The girls were in the game from the very first minute and fought very hard to the bitter end. Some chances to score were created, but both the Stirling and Union goalkeepers had an outstanding match, denying both sides in finding the back of the net. It was a great display of skill and fellowship by both teams in ending the match in a draw.
The second team then took to the turf in, what proved to be, another exciting and thrilling encounter. Union penetrated the Stirling goal area on many occasions but failed to find the back of the net. It took a well-struck hit by Jemimah Mangunda to take the lead in the second half to seal the match 1 – 0 in Union’s favour.
Union’s first team then battled it out against Stirling’s 1st XI and went down by a goal in the 7th minute of the first quarter. Stirling scored in the second quarter again to take them 2 – 0 up. Union stuck to their game plan and played some brilliant hockey in the third and fourth quarter, which saw goals by Rosslyn Sparks and Henzѐ Japhta, to end the match in a 2-all draw.
The players must be commended on their fighting spirit throughout the match.
Well done to all the girls!