Fighting spirit pays off for St Matthews

St Matthew's Collegiate coach Abby Hill was quick to deflect any praise onto her players after they scored a gripping 1-0 win over Wairarapa College in the grand final of the Wellington secondary schoolgirls premier division hockey competition in Wellington last Friday night.
"They did marvellously well, it was an awesome result and I think they deserved it," Hill said. "They knew they would have to fight hard all the way and that's what they did"
With their two previous meetings this season having ended in 2-2 draws another close, tense encounter was always likely to happen, as was the drama which went with it.
"There was a green card, a yellow card and a goal disallowed..........it had a bit of everything," Hill said. "Both sides gave it heaps , and so did the spectators.There was plenty of passion there"
St Matthew's made most of the early play and Wairarapa College had inspirational goalie Loren Hartnell to mainly thank for keeping them at bay.
Gradually, however, the contest became more even with Rachel Nicol spearheading the St Matthew's effort with her determined attacking and impressive ball control. She was ably assisted by the experienced Jade Foreman and other front runners in Emma Warren and Libby Monaghan.
The Wairarapa College defence, led by the ever-voluable Katherine van Woerkom with support from Kelsey Governor, Libby Noema, Chloe Stevens and Georgia Burton, never wavered, however, and they were also quick to utilise the speed of April Campbell on attack.But she, in turn, found the St Matthew's defence difficult to crack.
In the midfield St Matthew's had a slight edge.Their passing was crisper and their back tracking had more urgency to it. Skipper Amanda Pottinger was especially efficient in both respects.
Halftime came with the score at 0-0 and the second spell began as the first had finished with play sweeping from one end of the field to the other on a regular basis.
A free hit taken quickly by St Matthew's from just outside the circle proved to be the pivotal moment of the game, a penalty corner being gained, and in a well-rehearsed move, the ball being passed back to Jade Foreman who swept it into the net from the narrowest of angles.
That goal in the 10th minute of the second half was to be the matchwinner but there was plenty of excitement, and even a touch of controversy to come.
Wairarapa College's Felicity Reidy seemed to have deflected in an equaliser from close range following some splendid work from her skipper Jess Lucas.
After conferring for several minutes Wairarapa umpire Susannah van Woerkom and her fellow umpire Sam Hunt disallowed the goal, deeming the ball had come from the stick of a St Matthew's defender.
Wairarapa College had other scoring chances too, Campbell failing to control an excellent through ball with only the keeper to beat and Burton being foiled by the goalie's helmet with a close range shot from a penalty corner. But, overall, the doggedness of St Matthews reaped its rewards and they still had their noses in front when the final whistle sounded.
The only blot on a grand spectacle was the game being played in Wellington rather than at Clareville where the support from locals would have been huge. As it was the 120 or so who did watch the game were almost all from the Wairarapa, with one count putting the number of Wellington-based people as low as three!