The Otago Secondary School Sports Association recently held a Girls Football tournament in Dunedin during Winter Sports Week, Sunday 30th August - Tuesday 1st September 2020. Columba College First XI participated in the event, and produced some outstanding results!

The Football 1st team had an excellent tournament here in Dunedin this week. In pool play we had three convincing wins against Fiordland 5 – 0, St Kevin’s 5 – 1 and South Otago 2 – 0.

Highlights included a hat-trick to Paige Julian and a goal to goalkeeper Hayley Julian with her first touch playing up front; and a goal by central defender Tessa Campbell, when she blasted it in with a long shot from near half-way!

In the quarter final we defeated a good Dunstan team 2 – 1 with a solid, well-organised performance in blustery conditions – goals from Zara Pratley and Camila Tawse-Smith. This took us through to the semi-final against James Hargest, which we knew would be a tough one. With the score still at 0 – 0 with only three minutes left on the clock, Charlotte Hayes got on the end of a through ball and calmly placed her shot wide of the keeper.

The final against Otago Girls had the added excitement of being Live Streamed on YouTube, and the girls did Columba proud again with a tireless, gutsy performance. After 15 minutes of extra time the score was still level at 0 – 0, but unfortunately we then conceded just our third goal of the tournament to lose 1 – 0.

This outstanding result was a fitting way to farewell our Year 13 players, who have all given so much service to Columba Football over the years – our captain Olivia Bolwell, Tessa Campbell, Stella O’Sullivan and Isabelle Coe. Thank you to all the girls, our awesome coach Renee Bacon and also to all the parent supporters who came to encourage the team throughout the tournament – your presence was much appreciated.

Columba MVP for the tournament – Charlotte Hayes

Andrew Moore (TiC Football)