Hero photograph
 
Photo by Jose Zandbergen

1st XI Boys Football Gain Satisfaction in Linwood Cup

Simon Davenport —

Travelling to Invercargill, the First XI Boys Football team showed tenacity on the ball during Winter Tournament Week.

In a final farewell for six Year 13 players – Dan Goodwin, Callum Crawford, Tom Kerr, Ben Corry, Ryusei ‘Bob’ Kobayashi and Paul Pornsawanwong - the variable weather encapsulated the results where the boys finished a creditable 7th in this South Island wide tournament, dominating our Catholic brothers St Kevin's in a 5-0 victory in the final game. In a tournament that saw growth in confidence, the final placing was coats of paint away from being higher.

So it proved to be against last year’s losing finalist Papanui, who stunned us in the first half from set piece corners to lead 1-3 at halftime, and end with a final score of 1-4. A frustrating game against St Peters (Gore) on the artificial turf saw Roncalli unable to break the negative mindset of St Peters, who were content to ride out an uninspiring 0-0 draw.

This created a ‘must win’ game against Geraldine High School and from the onset the lads looked to create and dominate, with the result being that we were in control for the whole game. The fact that the boys bounced back from the morning’s disappointment to pick up a 3-0 win, was most satisfying and showed what the team could do.

Riding the wave of confidence and feeling 'the vibe' , the boys capitalised on the Geraldine game from the day before to demolish Dunstan, with a superb 6 nil win and finish pool play second in our group and qualify for the top 8 quarter finals. 

Drawn against Mount Aspiring College from Wanaka in the quarterfinal was an intimidating task. From the whistle it was evident that the opposition were a very classy and well drilled team. But our lads showed great grit, determination and indeed skill, matching it with them throughout the whole game. We eventually succumbed 0-1 in what was an amazing game of football to watch (and ride through!).

Losing that match put us into the 5th to 8th placing group, playing John McGlashan College  (Dunedin) in a real arm wrestle, with both sides having chances but with neither being able to convert any of them. So it went straight to a penalty shoot out at full time. Unfortunately Roncalli came out on the wrong side of that, going down 6 v 5.

Right from the word go the lads asserted their authority and never really gave St Kevins a sniff. Our boys played some super and more relaxed football which produced a very dominant performance. Congratulations to Jan Kuepper who was voted our MVP by the opposition teams that we played.