Hockey U12E vs Handcross – 3-0 WIN

All I can say is wow! What a performance from the E team, in their first competitive match against another school. They played incredibly, putting into practice everything we had worked on in our game’s lessons. Lara and Charlotte in defence, were an impenetrable wall, stopping most of the balls that came their way and using a powerful slap pass to clear the ball out the D. They did a great job of going to their player and not being afraid to try and tackle them. They showed no fear! In midfield, Gracie, Olivia, Eden and Alexa were working the ball around beautifully, looking for gaps and hitting the ball up high, for Emma who was waiting in the D. We did this several times and were able to get through the defence and then have a 1v1 with the goalkeeper, which is ideal (one of our players with the ball and just the goalkeeper in front of them). Emma at centre forward didn’t stop running, always staying in front of the ball and up high, so that we could do the long ball into her into the D, then pop it into the goal, a hard feat against a very good goalkeeper! The key thing that stood out to me, is that at no point did they all rush towards the ball and crowd it, they were all marking their players/space effectively and not panicking and running towards the ball. Well done team, I am an extremely proud coach and it was the highlight of my week.

Player of the match: Emma Fowler

Coache’s player: Lara Kolenda-Aukamp

Highlight of the match: from our defensive D, we hit the ball all the way down the pitch into the D, where Olivia was waiting and she tapped the ball into the goal.