26 Aug 2022
On Tuesday, 16 August, we travelled to Valentine Sports Park in Sydney, the “football Mecca” and home of Football NSW, to play Epping Boys High School. We were the under dogs. No one expected Smith’s Hill, an academically selective High School, to make it this far. Epping had busloads of staff and students arrive, and they were armed with drums and megaphones that blared across the park making for a fun atmosphere.
To be fair, we were the better team in the first half. Silencing the drums and cheers from Epping was fun and the boys deserved to lead 1-0 going into the half time break. We received a free kick 25 yards out and sent it into the Epping eighteen-yard box. The tall centre backs for Epping cleared the danger but Luke Palermo duly sent the ball back towards William Aston who turned and lashed the ball home with his left boot, stunning the Epping goalkeeper and the crowd. It was by far the best goal of the match.
In the second half, a few early injuries and then the depth of Epping Boys was starting to hurt. We tried our best. We gave our everything, but eventually we lost 3-1, and on another day, who knows, it could have been different.
Congratulations boys! To make it this far as South Coast Champions and State Cup Semi-Finalists, scoring 29 goals in seven matches, is an amazing achievement and the best in the history of any Smith’s Hill High School soccer team.
Team list: Euan Riedy, Nixon Nourie, Kai Kubota, Adam Kairis, Samuel Palermo, Luke Palermo, Louis Miller-Tamsitt, Sebastian Stanojevic, Alexander De Santis, Sami Benten, William Aston, Dylan Dimoski, Adrian Morgan, Oscar Lovrek, Ted Kelly, Jem Benten.
Thank you to our sports teacher Lisa Gass, for all of her assistance with the matches.
Elvis Necovski - Coach
