Tauranga Boys' College beat Nelson College 2-0 in the perfect start to their nationals campaign.
Tauranga Boys' College beat Nelson College 2-0 in the perfect start to their nationals campaign.
Tauranga Boys' College First XI coach Nathan Fry watched his lads collect a crucial four points from two fixtures on the opening day of the secondary school football nationals in Taupo - then told them to go jump in a lake.
The order doubled as an old-school rest-and-recovery regime, sendingplayers back and forth across the road from the hotel spa to the bitterly cold Lake Taupo, but by the sound of things the boys were not living up to their end of the bargain.
"Six minutes on and six seconds off, and they have not been in the lake," Fry raged down the other end of a phone line yesterday afternoon before explaining his side's early success.
The hot-and-cold treatment was intended to accelerate the recovery of a side who kept their goal intact in encouraging 2-0 and 0-0 results against Nelson College and Mount Albert Grammar School respectively.
Two goals from livewire Dylan Bull spurred Boys' past Nelson College in the morning before a simple game plan was used to frustrate the highly ranked Auckland side in the afternoon.
"Mags dominated possession in our second game without doubt and 0-0 flatters us, but it was a game plan that we executed pretty well," Fey said.
"They didn't create any clear-cut opportunities - just a number of half-chances they never took. They would be pretty gutted with that score but you've got to put them away."
In other Pool B action, Nelson College accounted for St Bede's 2-1 after Mount Albert Grammar School smashed St Bede's 6-0 in the morning.
"There's a pretty strong possibility that we are already through to the top eight, but in order to guarantee it we will need to at least draw with St Bede's tomorrow," Fry said.
"We really couldn't be in a better situation. Us and Mags will be playing at exactly the same time, so we will have people over at their game telling us the score."
Mags looked favourites to go through as top seeds ahead of Boys' College to crossover play against Pool A, but Fry believed that might not be such a bad thing for the Tauranga side.
"If you asked me this morning whether there was much advantage [in qualifying top of the pool] I would have said yes, but Christchurch Boys beat St Kent's 1-0 this afternoon.
"So if we come second in our pool we will more than likely play Christchurch Boys instead of St Kent's, which would be quite beneficial because the Auckland schools have a lot of experience with crossover games."
Boy's College's final round robin match, against St Bede's of Christchurch, starts at 1pm today.
Results: Tauranga Boys' College 2 (Dylan Bull 2) Nelson College 0; Tauranga Boys' College 0 Mount Albert Grammar School 0.
