Hockey success

Smith’s Hill High School’s Boys Hockey team had a highly successful campaign throughout Term 2 of 2021. The first game saw us come up against Figtree High who, with a couple of very good midfielders and a heap of keen players gave us a very difficult game. We won 1-0, with the result reflecting the fact that we hadn’t played together as a team for around two years.

Next up was Wollongong High who lacked sufficient numbers of experienced players to give us much of a challenge. The score blew out significantly and even with our best players off the field and others restricted to no tackling or running, we were still comfortable winners.

We then faced Illawarra Sports High, who had some very strong State level players in their squad. Fortunately, our overall squad strength was higher and with some dedicated marking of their best players in the midfield, our “edge of field” players dominated and we ran out 8-2 winners. It was very pleasing to see the beautiful passing game on display from our team and also that our two Year 7 wingers, Rhys Bollard and Will Burns, were amongst the goals; they scored one each and helped by also setting them up for others. By the end of this game, our team work was really starting to develop and the ease in which some of the goals were scored against a fairly strong side was impressive.

This meant that we were to face Crookwell in the Regional Final. Teams from the Southern Highlands are traditionally very strong and Crookwell was no different with every player being quite experienced. The game was an incredibly close fought affair with Oliver Bollard scoring a goal in the first quarter. He’s a fullback, we still don’t know what he was doing up there! It appeared that Smith’s Hill was a marginally stronger team overall, however, there was no way that Crookwell were giving up and they had a number of excellent opportunities to score, only to be thwarted at the last by Owen Douglas, playing the game of his life in goals.

The game see-sawed with Crookwell just not able to crack it for a goal and Smith’s Hill managing another to Rhys Bollard in the second quarter to go in at half time 2-0 up. In the second half Crookwell came out more aggressively and dominated for extended periods. Smith’s Hill has a very strong defence built around Darcy Campbell, Oliver Bollard and Lyndon Coward and whilst Crookwell pushed hard, the goal never came. Nevertheless, the game remained very tight and any goal to Crookwell would have created significant tension, they were never out of it.

In the fourth quarter, Smith’s Hill scored a third goal through Ben Morrison to give us that breathing space and the feeling that we did have them covered and the game finished at 3-0 with Smith’s Hill as Regional Champions.

The whole squad deserves recognition, both for their excellent teamwork and effort but also for their good sportsmanship on the field. Every player did so much work off the ball to put pressure on Crookwell and cause turnovers. The excellent passing between Lyndon, Ben, Huon Bollard and Alex Stevenson throughout the midfield was a pleasure to watch. The grim defence and tight marking from Michael McCann, Mayank Aurangabadkar and Owen Gray helped so much in preventing Crookwell from getting a runaway goal. The reserves didn’t get much of a run as the game was so tight for so long but they are to be commended for their team spirit. They will definitely be needed as we most likely will head to a State Championship carnival with numerous games to be played over a short time period.

Well done to all…Regional Champions!