Westville 1st Hockey took on Glenwood on Wednesday, 26 March at the Westville Astro. The match was set to be a thriller with both teams having a large contingent of KZN Schools Hockey players including 2 current National U18 players in Jacques Bleeker (WBHS captain) and Keagan Hezlett (GHS), who have just come back from winning the AFCON Cup in Zambia
The match started at a blistering pace with Glenwood posting wave after wave of attack. The back four of Westville managed to soak up the pressure and did not concede any goals in this critical time in the game. Westville goalkeeper, Tristan Smith did exceptionally well keeping out 2 penalty corners keeping the score at 0-0 after 15 min. 18 minutes into the 1st half Westville were awarded their 1st penalty corner. Gareth Simmonds and Ryan Bradfield combined well with a one two, with Gareth slotting in the only goal of the 1st half taking Westville into the break with a 1 – 0 lead.
The second half started well for Westville with lots of possession. Westville eventually won another penalty corner 5 minutes into the second half and Simmonds scored another goal, sliding it just inside the back post. The ball eventually went into the goals off a Glenwood stick. Ten minutes later, captain Jacques Bleeker and Gareth Simmonds combined to score Westville’s 3rd goal with a 1st time slap from Simmonds to score an exceptional goal into the top left corner. Glenwood continued to fight back winning 5 penalty corners in the second half that were kept out by the Westville defensive penalty corner team lead by goalkeeper and man of the match, Tristan Smith. The score stayed 3 – 0 until the very last second of the match, when Westville was awarded their 4th penalty corner. After scoring 2 corners with variation moves, Gareth Simmonds decided to go with a straight flick and he scored a cracker into the top left corner, bringing his tally to 4 goals for the match. Westville ended the match 4 – 0 winners.
In other results, the Westville 2nd team drew 0-0, U16A won 4-0 and U14A won 3-2.