Top three finish for Nelson College

A double to Thang Vanuk has lifted Nelson College to their second best result at the New Zealand secondary schools football championships in Napier.

Vanuk scored twice as Nelson beat St Thomas College of Canterbury 2-0 in the third-fourth playoff yesterday. The result sees Nelson keep hold of the Alex Harvey Industries Trophy and finish as the highest placed South Island team.

It is also the school’s second best result ever, having only reached the final once, which is when they won the title in 2015.

‘‘We’re very happy and today we played really well and dominated the whole game really, and could have had a lot more than two,’’ coach Davor Tavich said. ‘‘We’re happy to come third and it’s always better than coming fourth, plus we retained the cup which is really important because I think if it had gone out of Nelson it would have been really hard to bring it back.’’

Nelson conceded just twice all tournament, with those two goals coming in their semifinal defeat to eventual champions Hamilton Boys’ High School on Thursday.

Tavich hailed the contribution of centre-backs Marco Whittington and George Franklin and defensive midfielder Vann Cenhrang.

‘‘Two goals in seven games [says it all] and I have to say our two centre-backs were outstanding in every game. I think they just about played every minute of every game, I maybe took them off for 20 minutes, but they put in a tremendous amount of work and effort in.

‘‘Today we were very tight again, I think they had about one decent chance and fortunately it hit the post. But they were very solid and I think it’s due to everyone working really hard off the ball but the back four and Vann did their job extremely well.’’

Whittington and Franklin did not feature for Tasman United in the National Youth League last summer but Tavich encouraged them to trial this year and said he was excited to see their development continue.

Meanwhile, Waimea College finished 26th after losing to Tawa College 2-1 in their final game. At the girls tournament in Taupo, Nelson College for Girls ended up 21st and Waimea 26th.