The second day, the moving day, of the group stage at the 2024 SA Hockey Under 21 IPT at UCT brought more goals, more memories and a few teams secured their passage to the semi-finals with a game to spare.
In the women’s tournament it was a semi-final confirmation coming from North West. Having had to work incredibly hard for their opening day victory against the Northern Blues, they had a far easier time of it against the KZN Raiders than would have been expected. Jan Du Preez opened and closed the scoring in a massive 6-0 win complimented by a Chanel Genis brace, Teshawn de la Rey, and Arisha van Niekerk.
The other game in Pool A saw Northern Blues overcome a spirited and nuggety challenge from Free State to win 4-1. They did however have to come from behind after Karla Marais scored for the central province. Their Northern neighbors though fought back as their skipper Cerian Fourie equalized, before Baylee Engelke gave them a lead, they would not relinquish adding two more goals from Danielle McCann and Laiken Brisset.
It’s a relatively straight forward virtual quarter final on Thursday as KZN Raiders take on Northern Blues to see who will join North West in the final four of the tournaments.
In Pool B Western Province could only score one goal through Coreen Matthee, but it was enough for a victory over their “B” side WP Peninsula. The victory moves the hosts to six points, and they are favorites to progress to the semi-final but there is a mathematical chance for them to pipped, so the bottle remains corked for the time being.
Southern Gauteng got themselves a first victory over Eastern Province winning 4-0. The first three goals were all notched by Hannah’s with Smyth getting one and three and Gerber scoring the second. Amber Fairon ruined the Hannah parade when she put the game to bed late on with the fourth. All four teams can still qualify for the semi-finals from this group with the final games seeing Southerns take on Western Province and Pens face off against Eastern Province.
In the Men’s tournament its 3 out of 4 Semi-Final spots already secured. Southern Gauteng were the first to book a spot in the final four as they beat Free State 8-3 this morning in a thrilling encounter. Travis Krumples (2) along with goals from Nashaan Matroos, Kago Phetlhu, Sibusiso Chili, Joshua Williams, Josh Grobler and Adams Mesach showed Southerns continued danger. Free State would have been pleased with pulling three goals back late (Lebohang Lethola, Siyetheba Mchunu & Francois Fourie) as goal difference could be deciding for the second spot in this group.
Eastern Province put themselves in a great position as they put points on the board with a 4-0 win over the WP Invitational side. Landon Petersen scored first before a Kayrian La Minniethen took the headlines with a hat-trick that he will remember for a long time.
Northern Blues place in the final four was secured after seeing them tested for long against North West in a game littered with cards. Corne Burger and Keorapetse Sihlangu made it 2-0, but it took until the final four minutes for Calvin Davis and Aiden Warren to finally put the game to sleep. 4-0 to the Northern Blues.
Western Province ensured this group still had something to fight for on the final day as they played out the first goal less draw of the day with WP Peninsula. The result meant that Western Province would need to avoid defeat against Northern Blues on the final day to secure a place in the Semi-Finals.
All games are live on the Supersport Schools app or website.
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