HBHS 1st XI at the Premier Football National Tournament

Winter Tournament Week saw the HBHS 1st XI Football team travel to Auckland to participate in the Premier Football National Tournament.

In our first game of the tournament, we played Marlborough Boys' High School, and got off to a great start with a convincing 6-0 victory.
Later that afternoon we played Otago Boys' High School, knowing a win would guarantee us a Top 16 placing after the first day.
The boys controlled the game and won 2-0, guaranteeing us a spot in the round of 16 still with Westlake Boys' High School, the defending champions and Auckland area league winners, to play.

On Tuesday, Westlake was first up and a draw meant we would top the group.
After an even game with many chances going both ways the game ended at 0-0.
This meant we topped the pool and would play Palmerston North Boys' High in our Round of 16 game later that day.
After two early goals to Palmerston North we were awarded a penalty with a minute to go in the first half, and went into the half time break 2-1 down.
Despite a dominant second half performance Palmerston North scored again on the counter-attack making it 3-1.
Scoring with two minutes to go was not enough, ending our 2024 unbeaten run which ultimately meant we would now be playing for 9-16th place.

On Wednesday we came up against Wellington College, and after a tired performance, Wellington College scored a free kick with the last kick of the game to win 2-1.

Thursday's draw matched us up against Christ's College from Canterbury.
A strong start by the boys saw us go into half-time the happier of the teams.
In the second half we started on the front foot scoring early, followed by another goal 10 minutes later seeing out the game with a 2-0 win.
We were now playing for 13-14th place against our long standing rivals, Mount Albert Grammar School.
In similar fashion to the Christ's College game, we started on the front foot and went into half-time 1-0 up.
Early into the second half we doubled our lead going up 2-0, however, a late goal from MAGS wasn't enough for them and we took a 2-1 win.

Although it was a bittersweet ending to the tournament, the boys were happy to have the third best defence in the tournament, conceding only 6 goals behind the two finalists, Tauranga Boys' College and the eventual champions, Sacred Heart College.

A huge thank you to everyone who could make this happen and an especially large thank you to Mr Scott, Mr Foy, and John Leyland.