Rāroa Redhawks

We were up against the toughest teams in Wellington, playing in the WRISSA football tournament was a tough challenge for us all, and with every adrenaline filled game, we played to put our bodies on the line. The first match in the group stage was probably one of the toughest games we've played together, because it was our first time on a tightly compacted pitch. But for the rest of the tournament we gelled. We defeated EBIS in a heart pounding game 1 - 0, and we felt relieved. Watching them later, we saw them knock down two teams in penalty shoot outs to great disappointment from the opposing team.

In our next couple of games our playing style became more clear to us all, and we started to beat teams comfortably, with runs down the line and switching the ball to the other side for Zac Benson to finish. Zac ended up scoring a phenomenal 14 goals by the end of the tournament, and secured us the win in the final against EBIS.

We want to recognize the amazing defence, and the goalkeeping from Caleb Gray and Ryan Bateson. Tom Wilkinson and Sam Jones had an awesome day, assisting most of the goals scored by Zac. At the end of the day, the Hutt captain, who formerly held the cup handed it over to the Redhawks captain, Matias Colon-Rivera to cheering from his teammates.

By Conor Rook and Matias Colon-Rivera.

Results - Rāroa Redhawks

vs EBIS (1-0)

vs Tawa 2 (6-0)

vs Brandon Int (10-0)

vs Rāroa 2 (3-0) quarter final

vs Hutt Int (6-1) semi final

vs EBIS (3-1) final

Football 2nd XI

Last Thursday, the football team travelled to the WRISSA tournament where everyone had the same goal. To win. Our first game was at 10 o'clock. We were very focused in our warm up. We wanted a good start to this tournament. A cold breeze struck. We were ready. The game kicked off, we started strongly and looked very threatening. Soon a well deserved lead was merited. We continued well and the game ended 5 -1. We checked the draw after our game and saw something huge. We were playing Newlands 1st team. We came into the game focused knowing we needed to pull off a great performance. But they gave us a good lesson.

In our last group match game it was a must win game against Avalon. We knew what was at stake and played a very good game. We won 8 - 0. Near the end of the game the coach of our team and the coach of our school’s first team came over. Turns out they were about to play on this pitch, and after the game we were playing, we wouldn’t have a break, we wouldn’t even change pitches. Us as the Rāroa 2nd team vs the Rāroa 1st team, in the quarter final. Here we go. We played the first half like our lives depended on it, we fought, we scrambled and gave it everything we had. At half time it was 0 - 0. In the second half we still played well but our opponents stepped up a level. It ended 0 - 3. We were out of the trophy tournament but still had two games to fight for a strong place.

As we were walking over I heard a voice say “this will be a close game’’ and immediately I grew focused. That voice was correct. It was an end to end game, it was back and forth. Goals were scored, shots were missed, and at the end we sneaked through with a 4-3 win. But guess who we had in our last game? Newlands 1st team, we came in with hope but left the pitch after learning another tough lesson. Overall we finished 6th out of 16 teams and the boys gave a heck of an effort the whole time. Special mention to the Raroa 1st team who won the tournament overall. This was a great time and experience.

Written By Ashford Dickson