For the second time in a week, Tauranga Boys' College 1st XI faced one of the top teams in the country in Westlake Boys' High School who were runners-up at Rankin Cup in 2012. The match was played in perfect conditions at Westlake GHS as part of the annual inter-school exchange.
Westlake started the stronger and put considerable pressure on the TBC defence which held firm with Denholm Clark, Toby Townsend and John Preece leading the way. Gradually Tauranga came into the game and Westlake were on the defensive with Hamish McGeorge setting up a number of promising raids into the Westlake circle. The final touch was lacking though and so the 0-0 halftime scoreline was a fair reflection of the run of play.
The second half began with Westlake gradually becoming more dominant and increasing pressure, culminated in their scoring after about 10 minutes. Not long after it was 2-0 when Westlake scored a rather soft goal from a penalty corner. Tauranga continued to try hard, however, the strong Westlake defence held firm and it was the home team that rounded out the scoring on the stroke of fulltime to make the final score 0-3.
This score probably flattered Westlake BHS but they were the better side on the day. However, TBC will learn from the very thorough examination, and there are a number of areas that coaches Gemming and Page can work on.
