Girls' Hockey Report

The A Grade Strikers played their best team game of the season in atrocious conditions on Sunday afternoon. Despite being a player short the Strikers dominated from the start. Captain Hannah Russell was simply everywhere and with support from the half line gave wonderful service to the strikers. Alyssa Hocking played her best game and the girls are now really combining well on all areas of the field.

The Scorchers met a full strength Demons outfit on Friday night and suffered a heavy defeat. Well done to young Emily McNaughton who was kept extremely busy in goals. Jordy Brown, Sophie Merrin and Oliva Rees were named amongst the better players.

Blades played their best game of the season, combining well in defence (Chloe Lyons dominated the half-line) and creating many opportunities on the forward line. Clean trapping and precision passing enabled the girls to outplay their opponents and all players contributed to what was a terrific team effort. Emily Crawford led from the front with another hat-trick of goals; Lizzy Duver added two and Rosie Dopheide also found the back of the goals, while Millie Howells topped off a great game with a spectacular diving goal. With the final score 7-1, the girls can now look forward to their next challenge.

Kristen Waldron

Boys' and Under 16 Hockey

Two cracking games of hockey last weekend involving our three Under 16 teams saw a total of 20 goals scored and two tight, strongly-contested and riveting matches.

Fred Martin’s College Red upset College Gold 7-5. A strong start saw Red ahead 5-1 at one stage and they weathered a stirring second half fightback by Mrs Winter Cooke’s team. Eren Zehir scored five goals for Red and Charley Falla-Jones and Tobe Adamson added the others. For Gold, those who scored were Euan Sutherland (with a hat-trick), Harley Milich and Milo Cooper (his first goal in his debut season!). Alyssa Hocking, Clancy Munro and Euan Sutherland stood out for Gold whilst the victors were well served by Eren Zehir, Charley Falla-Jones, Harry Mould and Finley McLindin, who donned the goalie gear this week. Special thanks must go to Sophie Spence who filled in a gap in the team and seemed to enjoy playing with her older sister and brother.

College Blue drew 4-4 with top-of-the-table Coleraine Black. This was a great game with each side having opportunities to score additional goals with these chances being thwarted by desperate and committed defending. The teams have met twice now and each game has ended 4-4 – I can’t wait to watch them again sometime next term! For Blue, Charlie Duver, the newly found goal-machine, continued his rich vein of form with two more goals whilst Ted Koch and Jack Wall (each of whom has also been scoring regularly) added one each. Blue led four times but each time Coleraine responded with an equaliser.

There is a huge amount of promise in junior hockey and plenty of endeavour and skill on show each week.

The Open team played Demons in very wet conditions on Sunday afternoon. Despite unavoidable absences leaving the team with only ten players, the team turned on a sparkling display, controlling play for most of the game. The efforts of the opposing goalie kept us from scoring on several occasions but our captain Reagan Simons was able to convert two penalty corners as we recorded a 2-0 victory. Reagan played a superb game but this was our best whole-game performance of the season to date – and it was a complete team effort in the full sense of the words. In particular, the games of Charles Cain, Eren Zehir, James Sutherland and Tane Nelson reached new levels. Dougal Sweeney, Mr Carolan and Old Collegian Lachie Holcombe were poised and efficient in their use of the ball and Jock Adamson worked hard on the right wing. Goalie Marcus Munro had a quiet night but he remained alert and provided great vocal support.

It was a very positive weekend!

On Tuesday night, the Open team played again - the match against the Couldabeens scheduled for the holidays being brought forward to allow Year 10 students and the GAPpers (who play for the Couldabeens) to play in the fixture.

College won 7-4 with goals from Tane Nelson (3), Even Zehir (2), Isaac Hocking and James Sutherland. We played moments of good hockey but struggled for spread and consistency. Our opponents made us pay for some carelessness in defence: Freddie Martin and parent Warren Butcher each scoring twice. The game was played in good spirits and it means the open team has one game remaining this term before the long break. We will now also avoid a repeat of last year’s dash back from Shepparton to play as we got off the bus!

Neil MacLean

Head of Hockey (Boys’)

Football

College Magpies 16.14.110 defeated Coleraine 0.1.01

Goal Kickers: J. Tonissen 3, J. Nicholls 2, J. Alexander 2, A. Mayfield 2, E. Hunter 2, C. Bonnett, G. Huf, J. Heazlewood, W. Baker,

Best Players: J. Tonissen, W. Bourke, T. Heazlewood, J. Nicholls, G. Huf

On Sunday the 2nd of June the U13 College Magpies played against Coleraine at Pedrina Park. In the first quarter the bottom aged players played extremely well as they were out of their comfort zone playing in key positions as many top aged players started the match on the bench. In the second quarter George Huf made a huge impact, reading the play and controlling the game. The third quarter was massive for the Magpies because the team worked well and saw the score line blow out thanks to Oscar Hausler who dominated in the centre and used Harry Austin and Austin Mayfield who were playing on the outsides sending the ball forward to set up countless scoring opportunities. In the last term, it was simply outstanding. Jake Tonissen and Cooper Bonnett were dominant in the ruck against an opponent who was much taller than them and the Magpies continued to score goals with ease. Jock Nicholls kicked an amazing goal from the boundary on his wrong side finding a way to get the ball through the big sticks on what we all thought was an impossible angle. A big thank-you to Todd O’Sullivan for coaching us, and Riley Alexander who helped out as a runner.

Austin Mayfield (Year 6 Student)

Stephen Mirtschin

Dates to Remember