Ashton’s alpha hockey girls

It was the weekend of the defending champions as Ashton International College booked their Grand Final berth winning the Durban North Regional of the SPAR KZN School Girls’ Hockey Challenge at Danville Park Girls’ High School.

This is the third time that Ashton has advanced through to the Grand Finals that will take place at St Mary’s DSG in July.

Ashton recovered superbly after their disastrous start. In their first game they took on Our Lady of Fatima and from the whistle, they looked out of sorts and went down by two goals. The team regrouped and looked unbeatable as they advanced all the way. In Pool A, Crawford La Lucia and Danville Park Girls’ High topped the log, advancing to the next round. Both Ashton and Fatima were the two teams from Pool B to make their way through to the semi-finals. In the first semi-final, Ashton took on host school, Danville.

At the end of the 20 minute game, the scores were level on nil. The game then went to rolling penalties where three players each had eight seconds to score. Ashton netted all of their chances while Danville missed one. In the finals for the regional title, Crawford La Lucia held most of the possession, but were unable to break Ashton’s hard working defence.

As the final whistle blew, again the scoreboard remained untouched. The team to hoist the trophy would be decided by a penalty shoot-out, this time five players lined up to take the shot. Crawford La Lucia’s Lori Swanepoel rounded Ashton’s keeper, Amy Jansen and sneaked it in to the right of the goals.

Ashton’s Vice Captain, Danelle van der Linde ran in, and knocked the ball in convincingly. Both Lisa Lister-James for Crawford and Ashton’s Captain, Amy Walker scored, with the score level on two a piece.

In the fourth round, Crawford’s Tanika Schram strike was blocked by Duni Steyn. Rachel Sarfidis brilliantly controlled the ball as she faked going right, pulled the ball left and ran it straight into the goals to take Ashton into the lead. The finals score was 3-2 to Ashton.

The visibly delighted Amy Walker, Ashton’s Captain said after their 3-2 win against Crawford La Lucia, “We worked so well as a team; this was all about our love for hockey, and everyone contributed to our success today.”

Ashton will join Amanzimtoti High School who won the Durban South Regionals on Saturday, Sarel Cilliers, newcomers from the Northern KZN Regional along with Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High School and St Anne’s College from the two Pietermaritzburg Regionals, Durban Girls’ College from the Durban Central regionals and four other teams that still need to secure their spaces in the remaining regionals that will be held around KwaZulu-Natal.

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