U9 IAPS Hillcrest Hockey Festival

U9 Girls

Thursday was a huge day for the U9 A girls team; their first ever taste of a festival. We played our 1st match against Pembroke House; Mariella and our captain for the day Lizzie consistently moved the ball down the ground to give BGE a chance to score. The game ended with a nil-nil draw.

With a few shots at goal, our second game against BGR also ended in a draw. The defence, led by Shanique, had a tough time keeping the ball away from our goal.

In our third game, Reagan, Joanne and Paula ran hard all game to help the team defeat Hillcrest 1 - 0. Mariella and Lizzie had some great shots at goal.

Next up was The Banda; Danica, Lilly and Areefa passed well and Chloe, our keeper, was strong at the back during the game. Lizzie was on the scoresheet for BGE as we drew 1-1.

We then went on to a winning streak against St. Andrew's Turi (2-0), Hillcrest (2-0), Peponi House (2-0) and Brookhouse Karen (2-0), finishing with a draw against the Hillcrest B team. 

Well done to the whole team on an amazing day of hockey!

Nominated MVPs during the matches; Reagan, Lizzie and Danica.

U9 Boys

On Thursday, the boys were very excited to represent the school in the highly regarded IAPS hockey Festival at Hillcrest. The matches were played for 10 minutes one way in a round-robin format.

The first game was against Pembroke, and the boys started brightly, creating half chances but not able to convert. Soon after, we were on the receiving end and thanks to Aazad for outstanding goalkeeping, the game ended 0-0.

The second game was against BGR. The boys dominated the majority of the game but did not capitalize on that to create more opportunities to take the win. It was another 0-0 score. 

Up next in our third game was Banda. The boys played very well, dominating the first phase of the game. You could see the joy on the boys' faces when they scored the first goal through Joshua, who was in the right position to finish a superb cross. The boys hung on, and they were devastated to concede a late goal to make it 1-1.

The next game was against St. Andrews Turi. A 2-0 win, with Khalil scoring a brace, gave the boys their first win of the Festival. It was a great morale booster as the boys went into the next game feeling good and high in confidence.

Up next was Hillcrest A. The boys put up a dominant performance to win the game 3-0, with goals from Khalil and Micah, who scored a brace.

The sixth game was against Kenton. They proved to be tough opponents as the game was fairly even in the first few minutes, with both teams enjoying good spells of possession, only for BGE to concede two quick goals. Khalil scored a goal, but it was not enough as the boys ended up losing narrowly to Kenton by 2 goals to 1.

Up next was Hillcrest B. The boys wanted to get over the disappointment of losing their first match of the season, and they did so with a 1-0 win. It could have been more as they limited the opponents to their own half the entire game but were not clinical in front of goal. 

Our next opponent was Brookhouse Karen. The boys put in a good performance, dominating possession and creating chances, one of which Khalil was able to convert to put BGE up. They were unfortunate to concede from the only attack Brookhouse had in the game. The game ended 1-1.

Up next was the ninth and final game of the Festival and it was against Peponi House. It was an all round great performance to cap a good outing for the boys; Joshua and Khalil both scoring to ensure BGE finished the Festival with a 2-0 win.

It was an incredible effort from the squad to record the good results; 4 wins, 4 draws and 1 loss. All players received a Certificate of Participation, and an award goes to the school. 

Well done to the squad of Aazad, Achille, Joshua, Khalil, Micah, Noah, Sebastian, Samuel, Shanay and Pedro. A special mention to Khalil, who was selected 4 times as the player of the game, and Micah, Aazad, Noah, and Pedro with one player of the game each.