Kokstad College
In their third appearance at the Grand Finals of the SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Hockey Challenge, Kokstad College notched up their best result yet – sixth place overall.
Representing the Southern KZN Region, Kokstad came up against defending champs, St Mary’s DSG (Highway Regional Winners), Epworth School (PMB Central Regional Winners) and travelling teams Ferrrum High School from Newcastle (Northern KZN Regional Winners) and Wartburg Kirchdorf School (Umvoti, uThukela and Umzinyathi Regional Winners).
Kokstad had a challenging start to their Grand Finals meeting Epworth in their first game and going down 2 nil followed by a 3 nil lose to St Mary’s. In their third game, they managed to get their first goal in with a 1 nil win against Wartburg. In their final pool game on Saturday they took on Newcastle’s Ferrum where the score was level pegged with a 1 all draw after the final whistle.
On Sunday, in the cross pool playoff they took on fourth in Pool B, Felixton College. After full time the score was level with no goals finding the back of the box. In the only penalty shootout of the tournament, Felixton took the first round, 1 nil. In the second round both Kokstad and Felixton netted their shots so the score was 2-1 to Felixton. Kokstad luckily levelled the score in the third round and Felixton were not able to build on their advantage and missed their third penalty meaning the scoreline was level on 2 each after three attempts.
The game’s result moved to a sudden death scenario with Felixton taking the first run and charging into the D, moving the ball left trying to round the keeper and rolling the ball agonisingly over the baseline. Kokstad took to the spot and calmly scored their team’s third and winning goal.
In their final placing game, they took on Crawford La Lucia in the fifth and sixth positional placing games. Crawford La Lucia were on song finding the back of the box three times and claiming fifth, with Kokstad earning a splendid sixth overall.
Kokstad High School – Southern KZN Regional Winner – Sixth (2019), Seventh (2011), Eighth (2014)