Northwood crowned hockey champs

NORTHWOOD School first hockey team defended their indoor crown with a nail biting 4-3 victory over Westville in the final of the KZN Indoor League recently.

Northwood showed immense character to come from a 3-1 deficit with ten minutes remaining in the game to grab the winner in the last three minutes. The lads from the north started the stronger of the two teams and played some good passing hockey in the first ten minutes, but only managed to capitalise once through Steve McManus.

Westville responded to the goal and took charge of the remainder of the half and after two good goals took a 2-1 lead into the half time break. They came out firing in the second half and extended their lead to 3-1through a well worked penalty corner.

This spurred the Northwood team into action and Greg Wright provided the punch needed when he turned over the ball and showed some individual brilliance to eliminate two Westville defenders and setup Steve McManus with an easy tap in goal. Northwood continued to pile on the pressure and were eventually rewarded a penalty corner when the skilful Matthew de Sousa was fouled badly. Tylo Remke showed composure to score the resulting penalty corner.

With three minutes left in the game it was again Tylo Remke who produced a moment of individual brilliance when he ran through the entire Westville defense and around the keeper to roll the ball into an open goal.

Northwood defended fiercely to see out the last three minutes and retained their crown. The result capped off an amazing season for the Northwood 1st team.

In the other important fixture of the night, the Northwood 2nd team beat a young Kearsney 1st team 6-2 in the promotion / relegation game. This result means the 2nd team will stay in the KZN Indoor League A section and will be the only 2nd team in the league for the second consecutive year.Jamie Pillay and Matthew Robinson both grabbed two goals whilst Dijon Hoareau and Daniel Willis scored one each.