Hero photograph
Football
 
Photo by Frankie Vella

Senior Boys Football

Amasio Jutel —

This year has been filled with amazing success for Logan Park’s senior boys Football team.

Like our Futsal Team, the senior boys were undefeated in our local competitions; the reserve football grade, and at the Coed Tournament. 

Lots and lots of goals saw us comfortably win the senior boys reserve competition. Winning the final 2-0, after conceding only 1 goal during the season was a very satisfying feeling. The only thing missing was our support, as due to level 1 restrictions, we were unable to have supporters watching our games, though that didn’t stop all of the mums in the team from turning up, bringing their loudest shouting voices with them.

As with every year, we competed in a regional school competition. Comfortably beating Central Southland College 5-0 on Day 1 guaranteed us a spot in the quarter finals, all we had to do was beat James Hargest to secure the easier draw. The game was incredibly tight, with a few of our players and theirs receiving yellow cards. Even with rolling subs in the competition, the game was intense enough for Mr Govan to decide against making a single substitution across the 60 minutes (including 10 minutes of extra time). Though we were the dominant team, we went down 1-0 early into the 2nd half. The lads fought hard, and we were finally rewarded with that equalising goal, coming from a thumping shot by Lucas Reid. A cagey period of extra time went scoreless, meaning that the outcome of which team would be topping the group went down to a coin toss. As we were the away team, I got to call the toss, meaning I had the responsibility of 50/50ing which team would play against tournament favourites Mount Aspiring College. As much as I would love to claim that it was skill that won us that toss, luck was on our side. Our quarter final opponent was Southland Boys, and with injuries to a few key players (including 67% of our midfield), we lost the game on pens, karma striking back, and luck going towards our opponents. Coincidentally, luck also went the way of James Hargest, as they beat MAC 2-1. A 4-0 win against Bayfield meant we played for 5th/6th against MAC, a game we never looked likely in, and lost 6-1.

Our last hoorah of the year came at the Coed Winter Sports Tournament. Drawing with Kavanagh, comfortably beating our rivals Bayfield, and resting a nil all draw got us a guaranteed spot in the final, against Kaikorai. Lucas scored the opening goal, a comfortable strike from the top of the box sent us ahead 1-0. An unfortunate miscommunication at the back brough KVC back 1-1. We were all over them, it was our game to lose. In the final 5 or so minutes of the game, Ben went on a startling crusade from some 45 yards out, dribbling through about 5 of their players and easily placing the ball past the goalkeeper to secure a 2-1 win, our 3rd Coed win in a row. Saying goodbye to 7 year 13s (some of whom had been with the senior boys for 4 years) and (of course) Mary Yeardley was difficult, though we were grateful to celebrate our time together with the coed 3peat.