Tuks face Wits in Varsity Hockey semi-final
Tuks’s men’s hockey team ended second on the log in the Varsity Hockey Tournament and they will play against Wits in the semi-finals on Monday night.
Monday night’s Varsity Hockey semi-final between Tuks and Wits is guaranteed to be a humdinger.
During last weekend’s encounter, Tuks was only able to secure the victory in die dying minutes of the game. Guy Elliott (Tuks head coach) does not expect things to be easier this time around playing against Wits.
“Tuks and Wits got a real rivalry going over the last few years where there is never any mercy shown. Monday night is not going to be an exception. It is all going to boil down to which team wants it the most and can make the most of its opportunities,” said Elliot.
Maties, who is the only unbeaten team in the tournament, will play Northwest Pukke in the other semi-final.
The Tuks team had been on a roller coaster ride during the past weekend’s games. On Friday night they lost 4-2 against UCT and Saturday they went down 5-4 after a titanic battle against Maties. It meant they had to beat Kovsies on Sunday night. They did so in emphatic style winning 8-0.
Elliott was slightly disappointed after the lost against Maties.
“It was not as if we were playing poorly. We were not making the most of our scoring opportunities. Against UCT we had 40 circle entries, but we were just not able to make it count. The biggest problem is that we battled to score from penalty corners. If we were able to do so in only 20% of the corners, we would have won both games,” Elliot explained.
It was notable that Tuks was also not able to score goals in any of the three Power Plays over the weekend.
Elliott admits that the only time Tuks was able to capitalise on their opportunities during the Power Play in the whole tournament was against Wits. He said on Monday night his team need to make it count.
On Sunday night against Kovsies in the second quarter Tuks played some of their best hockey of the whole tournament. In a blitzkrieg of 15 minutes Ashley Kemp, Steven Paulo, Bradley Sherwood and Michael Forest (2) scored goals to give Tuks an 8-0 lead. The team did not score any goals after halftime.
According to Forrest, who is one of the Tuks team’s leading goal scorers in the Varsity Tournament, they consciously decided to take things a bit easier as it was important to save themselves for the semi-final.
“Getting a convincing win against Kovsies was the confidence booster we needed. On Monday night the challenge will be to make the most of every scoring opportunity,” said Forrest.
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