Snr Hockey Results vs Framesby

Victory for Union against Framesby

The hockey matches were fast and fierce against Framesby on Friday afternoon, 26 July 2019.

As part of the top 8 schools in the Eastern Cape, this was a “must-win” for union’s 1st team girls in order to ensure an upward movement on the overall log as the 2019 season nears the end. The girls started off by setting the pace for the match with an early goal in the second minute by Leatitia Theron.

This was followed by a feisty goal from Henzé Jaftha and a third by the captain, Jenna McNaughton, in the second quarter.  This took the girls to a comfortable 3 – 0 lead at half time. The third quarter enabled Henzé to shine again with two quick masterpieces, racking up her hat-trick for the match.

The final quarter allowed the girls to cement their lead even more with two goals from Micela Loock, resulting in a 7 – 0 victory.

The girls worked hard to maintain consistency throughout the match, capitalising on opportunities presented and keeping their work rate up for the entire match.

“This is a great start to a tough end of the season which is coming up for the girls, I look forward to seeing the hard work put in this season pay off on a high note against Alex, DSG, and Volkskool,” said coach Alvin August.

In other results against Framesby, Union’s 16B team beat Framesby 1 – 0, the u/16As also won 2 – 0, the 3dr team won 5 – 0 and the 2nd team won 3 – 0.

Snr Sport Results vs Winterberg

RUGBY

In Saturday’s rugby matches against Winterberg Agricultural High School in Fort Beaufort, the u/14A team lost 12 – 19, the u/15A team lost 12 – 14, the u/16A team won 36 – 14, the second team won 7 – 5 and the 1st team lost 14 – 31.

HOCKEY

Special mention must also be made off the girls who represented the school against Winterberg this past weekend – most playing against one team higher than their own ranking.  The girls were successful and flew the Union flag high, with the 2nd team beating Winterberg’s 1st team 4 – 0 and the u/16B team beating Winterberg’s 2nd team 6 – 0.

Jnr Results vs Clarendon

The junior rugby and hockey teams faced Clarendon Park Primary School on home ground this past Saturday morning, 27 July.

RUGBY RESULTS

The u/11B team lost 5 – 33, the u/11A team lost 5 – 20 and the u/13B team lost 5 – 17.

In the last match of the day, the u/13A boys worked hard to put their opposition under pressure in challenging conditions.  The first half was closely contested, but Union cemented their dominance in the second half to secure a 29 – 7 win over Clarendon Park.

HOCKEY RESULTS

A polished Clarendon side made a confident start against our 1st team and slotted home their first goal after only 5 minutes. This galvanized our girls into action and they soon regrouped and began to fight back. Shortly before the end of the first half, Union were finally rewarded for their efforts when Caytah-Leigh Koeberg and Leshay Fourie combined successfully to pop a sneaky goal past the keeper.

The second half delivered more fast-paced, exciting hockey and Clarendon again managed to score at the beginning of the half to put them one goal ahead. They continued to put pressure on our girls with many attempts at goal, but the Union girls worked hard to deny them. As the game drew to a close, Soso Mroro made one of her trade-mark break-aways, and the spectators held their breath as she stormed towards the goalbox with seconds to spare. An unfortunate foot fault at the crucial moment denied her the opportunity to equalize and the match ended with a 2 – 1 loss for Union.

2nd team lost 0 – 4

3rds vs u/11A lost 0 – 2

Snr Hockey Results vs Pearson

Well done to the hockey teams for braving today’s cold and wet weather conditions in Port Elizabeth.  Union played against Pearson High School.

The competition was tough, but the girls gave it their all and worked as a team to get the goals they could.Today’s matches saw the 3rd team lose 0 – 6, the 2nd team 1 – 2, the u/16As 1 – 2 and the u/16Bs 0 – 7 with the 1st team drawing their match 2 – 2.

Congratulations to Chelsea Theron (photo) who played her 50th cap for the 1st hockey team in the match against Pearson today.

Interprovincial Hockey Tournaments

U/18 Interprovincial Tournament

During the recent school holidays – from the 16th to the 22nd of June – Jenna McNaughton and Micela Loock represented the EP u/18A team at an interprovincial hockey tournament held in Pietermaritzburg.

After five games, the team ended top of their pool with a goal difference of 23.  Having successfully qualified for the semi-finals, they then pitted their skills against that of the Northern Blues.  After this tightly contested match ended in a 1-all draw, a penalty shootout ensued, which the EP side unfortunately lost.  They then contested the tournament’s 3rd and 4th position against Southern Gauteng.  After losing this game, they ended 4th overall out of 12 teams.

Both players enjoyed the tournament tremendously and were grateful for the opportunity to improve their hockey.

U/14 Interprovincial Tournament

Grade 7 learner Sonwabise Mroro was recently part of the u/14B team that represented the Eastern Province at the inter-provincial hockey tournament held in Bloemfontein (23 to 27 June).

The team fared exceptionally well, especially considering that they were a ‘B’ side competing in the ‘A’ division

The team finished 8th overall among 11 ‘A’ sides and 3 ‘B’ sides.

The team’s coach only had the highest of praise for Soso, saying, “Soso had a fantastic tournament showcasing her talent and growing as an individual player.”

Well played Soso!

Sport Results vs Gill College and Gill Primary School

Emotions ran high during Saturday’s derby day against Gill College and Gill Primary School.

The day, which was as usual characterised by wonderful interaction between the schools involved, saw the matric 1st XV rugby boys represent Union High School for the very last time on home soil.

Many Old Unionites filled the stands to support the players.

Rugby Results

The rugby matches against Gill delivered mixed results, with the U/14s losing 10 – 20, the U/15s winning 36 – 7, the U/16s winning 47 – 12, the second team winning 31 – 12 and the 1st XVs losing 16 – 21.

Senior 1st Team Report
The first team match – which also happened to be the matric 1st XV rugby boys’ last one on home soil – was fiercely contested with both teams taking the lead on occasions.  Union managed to gain the lead and maintained it until the last five minutes.

However, in a game where Union dominated possession and set phases, the Union players were, unfortunately, unable to take full advantage of the many opportunities presented to them, which allowed Gill to stay in the game.

The only difference between the two sides on the day was that one was able to take full advantage of their chances, therefore, in the end, it was Gill College that came out on top winning the match 21 – 16.

Although it was a tough start to the third term, the team hopes to bounce back in a spectacular fashion in their next fixture against Pearson.

Hockey Results

Union’s hockey teams had a successful encounter against Gill today, with the 1st Juniors winning their match 3 – 0 and the 2nd Juniors winning 1 – 0.

The school’s senior 2nd team won 8 – 0 and the 1st team enjoyed a 17 – 0 victory.

Senior 1st Team Report
Gill opted to play a match of 4 quarters which seemed to suit the Union girls’ style of play and saw the 1st quarter provide 4 brilliantly worked goals in favour of Union.

Union then continued to dominate the match with some slick and accurate passing and great finishing in the goal area. Three goals were scored in the 2nd quarter, 6 in the 3rd and 4 in the last quarter.

The final score stood at 17 – 0 in Union’s favour.

The Union girls put up a good performance overall and positive signs are showing ahead of some tough fixtures to come.

Union’s goals were scored by Micela Loock (7), Jenna McNaughton (3), Henze Japhta (4), Laetitia Theron (1), Chelsea Theron (1) and Jade Shires (1).

Junior 1st Team Report
After a long holiday break, the girls got off to a rather slow start, with some uninspiring play.   As the first half continued however, Union eventually found their rhythm and began to play to their strengths against the determined Gill side. Shortly before the half time whistle sounded, Lisa Menos and Leshay Fourie scored an opportunistic goal to put Union into the lead. The second half saw Union stepping up the pace and dominating play. Soso Mroro and Chloe Erasmus collaborated beautifully to add to the scoreboard with a text-book perfect, field goal; and then Lisa Menos and Leshay Fourie again proved to be the duo of the day as they slotted home the final goal of the match, giving Union a convincing 3-0 win.

It is incredible to see how much this young team has grown over the course of the season and we can only hope that they maintain this momentum as we work towards the end of the season which culminates with the traditional inter-school’s fixture.

 

Westering Co-Ed Festival

This weekend, Port Elizabeth’s Westering High School hosted their 11th biennial Co-Ed Festival, playing host to 17 schools with around 800 participating learners from around the country.

Jade Shires was announced as the Player of the Match in the Union vs Cambridge game

Union’s 1st hockey and rugby teams were among those who attended this much-anticipated sports festival.

The hockey team beat Port Alfred 12 – 0, lost 0 – 2 to Westering, drew 0 – 0 against Cambridge, won 5 – 0 against Linkside and drew 0 – 0 against Framesby.

The rugby team had two matches over the weekend. They, unfortunately, lost 14 – 24 against Fairmont and 36 – 17 against Itembelihle.

Jnr Hockey Results vs VP & Gill

The UHS junior hockey teams faced both Victoria Primary and Gill Primary on Union High School’s AstroTurf today, Saturday, 8 June.

In their matches against Victoria Primary, the 4th juniors lost 0 – 2, the 3rd juniors won 1 – 0, the 2nd juniors drew 0 – 0 and the 1st juniors won 2 – 0.

In the Gill encounters, the 2nd juniors lost 0 – 1 and the 1st juniors won 1 – 0.

The 1st Juniors played entertaining hockey in this home fixture against Victoria Park Primary and came away with a deserving 2 – 0 victory. Our girls played superior hockey throughout and maintained possession for a large percentage of the game. Some beautiful individual and team efforts made this a thrilling game to watch and both goals scored were as a result of some excellent team work. Well done to Soso Mroro who worked hard to set up both goals, and to Lisakhanya Menos and Leshay Fourie who were perfectly positioned to capitalise on these goal opportunities. Special mention must go to Alinda Goosen and Tyra Binney who both worked hard and controlled the game beautifully from the back and set up some great plays.

In the match against Gill the team maintained their momentum and again thoroughly dominated the game and were unfortunate to only win by one goal to nil. The girls are now displaying a maturity and work-ethic in their hockey that has thus far been lacking. They can be proud of their efforts over the last two weeks and I hope that they continue to grow over the rest of the season.

Jnr Hockey Results vs Cradock

JUNIOR HOCKEY VS CRADOCK (home) – 25 MAY 2019

3rd Jnr won 3 – 0

2nd Jnr drew 0 – 0

1st Jnr lost 0 – 2

Our Junior hockey teams hosted Cradock Primary this weekend in hot, dry conditions. Despite a great start to the morning, with a fine win by the 3rd team girls, the 2nd and 1st team girls were unable to maintain the momentum and neither managed to put a score on the board.

The girls came up against tough opposition from a physical Cradock side and although they tried hard to penetrate the defenses, they were denied success.

The second team girls played well, and displayed some lovely passing skills, but were unfortunately a little too “polite” on the day and would certainly have benefited from being a touch more aggressive in getting to the ball first. Mention must be made of Emma Short, who through exceptional work epitomised this skill on the day, and as a result, directly initiated the majority of our circle entries. The teams were very evenly matched and this made for an entertaining outing for the spectators.

The first team girls appeared to be a little lethargic in their match against the spirited Cradock team and consequently spent a lot of the game on defense which left us rattled and produced some scrappy play. While the teams did appear fairly evenly matched in skill, our girls were just a touch slower off the mark and this put us under great pressure for much of the match. We did manage more than a few circle entries, but were unable to convert, while Cradock were able to push two soft goals home after some sloppy defense on our behalf.

This was not the best result to give us confidence for our upcoming encounter against Collegiate next weekend, but it has given us scope to reflect on what we are doing wrong so that we can work on improving our game plan and our mindset for future fixtures.

Snr Hockey Results vs Cradock

UHS hockey shows determination

On Saturday, 18 May, the three hockey matches played at the UHS AstroTurf resulted in three victories for the Union teams who faced off against their Cradock High School counterparts.

From the get-go, Cradock struggled against the fine hockey being presented by the Union teams on the turf and Union proceeded to dominate in what has, in years gone by, always been a tough encounter.

The u/16B team was first to take to the turf, winning their bout 9 – 0, the Union second team then followed suit, winning their match 8 – 0.

At the start of the match between the two school’s first teams that followed, the Union girls battled to stamp their authority on the game, despite six or more attempts at goal in the first quarter, with only Marche Green being able to find the back of the net in the 12th minute.

Union, however, settled into their game plan and the second quarter saw Micela Loock score an excellent goal in the first minute and Henzѐ Jaftha another well-worked goal in the third minute.  Jenna McNaughton then scored in the sixth minute to follow suit.  With the half time score standing at 4 – 0 in Union’s favour, the second half saw Union again firing on all cylinders with Henze, Jade and Micela scoring in the third, fourth and 14th minute respectively.

The fourth quarter saw the Union team again attacking from the outset which saw Micela scored two more goals and Jenna one more to bring the final score to stand at 10 – 0 to Union.

“This was by far the girls’ best performance to date, with excellent passing, ball speed and vision leading to an entertaining match,” said proud coach Alvin August. “More of these performances will see our girls become a force to be reckoned with among the Top 8 teams in the Eastern Cape.”