Honours even in the big freeze as Woodridge, St Andrew’s do battle

Six St Andrew’s College hockey sides travelled to Woodridge College on Saturday and played in freezing, wet weather.

Despite the conditions, the boys showed a positive attitude and gave of their best in their matches.

The U16D team had a close encounter with Woodridge U16Cs, and scored the equaliser in the second half, after some great interplay between Mfundi Leta and Neil Karimba.

The U14A team had another good win, while the U16Cs beat Woodridge U16B. Murray Campbell, Taine Hartzenberg and Tom Harper all made valuable contributions, as did goalkeeper Matthew Thompson.

The U16As enjoyed more possession than their opponents, but could not create goal-scoring chances and lost 1-0. Matthew Pope, Murray Bowker and Kirk Nevay all had exceptional games.

The 2nd XI played an excellent brand of passing and attacking hockey, and won their match convincingly, with Matt Mackenzie having another impressive game in midfield.

Although the 1st XI enjoyed much of the ball in the first half, they were unable to create goal-scoring chances, and conceded a goal on the break, giving the talented Woodridge side encouragement.

Josh Marx and Tom Russell made good contributions in the midfield and Joe Fisher did likewise on attack.

The St Andrew’s defence struggled and went 2-0 down early in the second half.

Despite continuous pressure on the Woodridge defence and two well-deserved goals, it was not enough and Woodridge won 3-2.