Ethan third in junior motocross champs
Year 7 student Ethan Carleton is the latest gun competing in motocross across the North Island, racing in the
U12s.
This year he competed in the New Zealand Junior Motocross Championship, held in Tauranga in early February and came third in his class (8-11 years Pro 65cc). Out of the five rounds Ethan finished with one second placing and four third placings, giving him third overall with 100 points. He also competed in the Waikato Schools Motocross Challenge at Patetonga which he won, also winning the King of the Schools in North King Country.
He competed at the Rotorua Schools Motocross Competition coming in second overall. He is now preparing to compete at the Whanga¯rei and Taupo¯ schools competitions yet to come.
FOOTBALL
Last Saturday the Katikati U19 boys made their way to Rotorua to take on John Paul College, looking to keep their unbeaten season alive.
Katikati conceded first before Liam Capper slotted in a quality shot to tie things up. The game went back and forth from here, with captain Luke Spurr scoring an unlucky own goal, then a smooth left footed goal for Katikati just after halftime.
Katikati then went on a rampage and scored three unanswered goals, the first an incredible John College own goal from the centre back who was under huge pressure from Jacob Maloni, before Maloni slammed home his first. Sam Taylor rounded off the scoring for Katikati with a cheeky chip from distance. John Paul scored a late consolation goal to finish
the game, 5-3 in favour of Katikati. Stand out players were Liam Capper and man of the match Eli Brydon who was incredible at centre back.
The team is at home to ACG this weekend, 9.30am kick off at the college. Come down and show your support.
Girls football enjoys success
The Katikati girls premier football team travelled to Taupo¯ to play Taupo Nui-a-Tia. Bella Bryant is out with a serious ankle injury from the 1-1 draw the previous week with Otumoetai 1st X1, so other players had to step up on attack to cover the void left.
After a slow start the girls started to maintain possession and use combination play to create some chances. The defence was strong throughout the game and it was great to see the wide players pushing up and making a difference on attack. Highlights
from the game included the opening goal from Jessie Christie with a powerful left footed shot from outside the 18 yard box.
Katikati’s second goal came from a break down the left wing by Destinee Benge and good passing, with Mackenzie Walter finishing with a right footed shot into the top corner. The third goal came from individual play with Walter dribbling 70m through the opposition midfield and backline, then finishing on the second attempt.
Taupo¯ applied pressure with some speed up front and forced Katikati’s defence into mistakes, leading to two well taken goals. Hayley Reyland finished the game strongly with two well taken chances that were well placed and hit with power.
In other girls’ football results the U13 Pink Lightning team had a 4-1 win vs Te Puke with goals to Georgia
Walter and a hat-trick from Charlotte Tanner. The U10 girls team coached by Bella Bryant and Claudia Duckworth played well and had a 5-0 win.
HOCKEY
A devastating display from Mother Nature on Wednesday night saw the KKC 1st XI girls’ game against Aquinas Girls abandoned after 15 minutes, due to lightning and torrential rain at 1-0 up, thanks to a superb solo effort from Meghann Fraser. After a 20-minute delay, Moana turf was the only game to be resumed with Tauranga Hockey’s Whanga and Tahatai turf’s under water.
After warming up again for the second time the game restarted. It was a fierce match with the inexperienced Aquinas team really taking the game to KKC. Some loose defending led to a few tricky moments in the circle, but goalie Eva Freeman managed to get out quickly and keep her sheet clean. Aylish Dunlop was in great form and forced a PC (penalty corner) midway through the second quarter, which Katie Templeton slotted with ease to make it 2-0 at the break. Things started to ramp up after halftime with KKC settling into better patterns and great teamwork gave Dunlop her first goal of the season before Fraser coolly creating another PC gave Templeton her second from the set-play.
KKC lifted their intensity again in the final quarter, Whai Pine running strongly and Mikaela Salmon finding great space in the centre, but it was Destinee Benge’s huge workrate in striker that gave her a well-deserved deflection goal in front of the pads, with a minute to go to bring the score to 5-0.
Aquinas restarted and an excellent press from the KKC front 5 turned the ball over, with Ashar Pine picking up the ball and quickly transferring to Dunlop on the outside who drove into the D and with the clock running down the ball was played into Benge again, who with the Play of the Day, led in and with an excellent raised sweep found the net right on the buzzer 6-0. Best overall was Whai Pine.
BASKETBALL
KKC senior boys A played TBC senior reserves last Wednesday night in the first game of the TCBA Premier Boys competition. KKC had a poor start, not combining particularly well and TBC looked the stronger. However the team fought back well, starting to make their plays and managed to pull it back to win 72-60 in the end. Top points scorers were Dandre Du Plessis with 33, Sione Kivalu with 20 and Nikolai Frandi with 10. Depp Bolingford hustled really well in defence, making the difference in the second half.