Gisborne Boys' High School First XI players and coach Wade Manson after the team ended the school's long victory drought at the Super 8 hockey tournament. Manson estimated it had been 10 years since their last win. Photo / Bonnie Easterbrook
Gisborne Boys' High School First XI players and coach Wade Manson after the team ended the school's long victory drought at the Super 8 hockey tournament. Manson estimated it had been 10 years since their last win. Photo / Bonnie Easterbrook
Just ask Gisborne Boys’ High First XI senior hockey players Ollie Egan and Austin Fergus.
Heading into their fifth Super 8 this week, the Year 13 pair had yet to taste victory at the annual secondary schools’ hockey tournament.
Five games in, with one togo, that run of losses had continued.
And 2-0 down to Napier Boys’ High, with less than 10 minutes remaining in the playoff for seventh and eighth yesterday, another wooden spoon was looming.
Patrick McInnes (left), Austin Fergus and Ollie Egan celebrate McInnes' penalty shootout goal that sealed the win over Napier Boys' High in the playoff for seventh and eighth at the Super 8 hockey tournament. It was the first taste of victory for senior players Fergus and Egan in their fifth Super 8 competition. Photo / Bonnie Easterbrook
Ace goalscorer Egan, yet to score at this tournament, was running out of time.
In the 52nd minute, a through ball found him, he ran into the circle and rifled home a reverse-stick shot.
Six minutes later, he levelled the scores from a penalty corner. His first shot was blocked, but his second found the back of the goal.
It sent the game into a nerve-racking penalty shootout in which goalkeeper Francois Louw became the hero of the hour as Gisborne won 4-3.
Louw made several outstanding saves to deny Napier, while a cool-headed Harry Hayward scored twice, and Egan and Patrick McInnes scored the other goals.
The Gisborne contingent watched in wide-eyed silence - the players linked arm-in-arm - as McInnes’ victory-sealing effort rolled at a torturously slow speed into the net, sparking scenes of jubilation.
Amongst it all was fourth-year coach Wade Manson, who has dedicated a huge amount of his time to the First XI, with Egan’s mother Susan a pillar behind the scenes as manager.
Gisborne Boys' High School striker Ollie Egan duels with a Napier Boys' High player at the Super 8 hockey tournament in Palmerston North. Egan scored both goals in a 2-2 draw, then scored in a penalty shootout that Gisborne won 4-3. Photo / Bonnie Easterbrook
“The boys loved it. It was almost like a final for us,” said Manson, who estimated the last time Gisborne won a Super 8 game was “about 10 years ago”.
It was a classic case of never giving up. Manson told the boys at the third-quarter break, when they were 2-0 behind, that more can happen in a few minutes than in the rest of the game. It was up to them to make it happen.
The perennial battlers, who had unwillingly built an unwanted tradition of holding up the Super 8 table, did just that.
In pool play, Gisborne lost 9-0 to Hamilton Boys’ High, 6-1 to Palmerston North (Caleb Taewa the goalscorer) and 5-0 to Hastings.
It put them into a pool crossover game against Rotorua, and it was agony for Gisborne as they lost 1-0 to drop into the seventh/eighth playoff once again.
Patrick McInnes about to score the penalty shootout goal that sealed victory for Gisborne Boys' High School in the playoff for seventh and eighth at the Super 8 hockey tournament in Palmerston North. Photo / Bonnie Eastbrook
Gisborne have had only a couple of days to rest before returning to action in the Poverty Bay men’s club competition on Saturday.
But after their memorable win, they are looking forward to their Winter Week tournament as they contest the Founders Cup in Carterton later this month.
Manson has used the shaving of his luxurious beard as an extra incentive for the boys in the past. Someone might want to pack the razors for Carterton.
