{"id":47354,"date":"2024-05-31T11:38:38","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T09:38:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=47354"},"modified":"2024-05-31T11:38:38","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T09:38:38","slug":"northwood-crosses-swords-with-westville-while-clifton-hosts-kearsney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=47354","title":{"rendered":"Northwood crosses swords with Westville, while Clifton hosts Kearsney"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Westville
Westville Boys’ High captain Owen Slack, selected for the KZN Coastal u18A side for a second year in succession, is a powerful presence in the middle of the Griffin’s defence.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kearsney College<\/strong> travels down to Durban for a face-off with Clifton<\/strong>, while St Charles<\/strong> hosts Glenwood<\/strong>, and Maritzburg College<\/strong> crosses swords with Hilton <\/strong>on Saturday. However, the weekend action kicks off with a tie between Westville<\/strong> and Northwood<\/strong> on Friday.<\/p>\n

Northwood heads into the contest on a high after putting on a great show for their alumni on Old Boys’ Day last Saturday. They recorded a 2-1 win over Maritzburg College in an entertaining match. Justin Collins’<\/strong> charges’ come-from-behind victory against a talented and well-structured College outfit will give them confidence that they can overcome their hosts.<\/p>\n

Westville, however, also impressed last weekend, handing Hilton College a 2-1 defeat, and that was without their coach and KZN Coastal u18A coach Cam Mackay<\/a><\/strong> on the sidelines. He was in Namibia with the South African men’s indoor hockey team, and his return will be a nice boost for the Griffin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

One of the matches scheduled for Saturday is a mouthwatering encounter between Kearsney and Clifton.<\/p>\n

The teams have enjoyed a long-standing rivalry that was, at first, dominated by Kearsney. However, it intensified when Clifton began pulling off upsets before making a habit of defeating Kearsney. There’s now an added twist to the contest after Keegan<\/strong> Pearce’<\/strong>s switch. The former Clifton first-team coach and Director of Hockey moved to Kearsney as their Director of Hockey at the start of the year.<\/p>\n

“I think there’s going to be added motivation from the Clifton boys to beat us this year,” Ashley Kemp<\/strong>, the Kearsney coach, shared.<\/p>\n

Kemp’s charges beat Glenwood 4-0 in their last match. In that tie, their captain, Matthew Mendes de Oliveira<\/strong>, played a starring role with a brace, scoring the first and fourth goals of the encounter. The Kearsney captain, who made the SA Schools side last year, is having the season of his life and will be a constant threat to the Clifton defence, which Kemp is hoping his side can prise open.<\/p>\n

“They have been defensively sound, not conceding a lot of goals. But we will be looking to exploit their defence,” Kemp said.<\/p>\n

Calvin<\/strong> Price<\/strong>‘s charges will not be easily pushed aside. Although young, they have shown that they are a force to be reckoned, scoring a win over Northwood and, earlier this week, DHS<\/strong><\/a>. Jason Adams struck a late winner, which will have served as a big confidence-booster for the home side.<\/p>\n

“We are looking forward to our final fixture of the season versus Kearsney and believe we are in a good space for the game ahead on Saturday. So, we’re hoping to carry that momentum forward into this weekend’s fixture,” Price said.<\/p>\n

Kearsney and Clifton have each won a match in their last two meetings. Kearsney edged Clifton 1-0 when they crossed swords early last season in Botha’s Hill<\/strong>. The year before that, Clifton, then under Pearce’s direction, ran out 3-1 winners at the Riverside Sports Club.<\/p>\n

On a quieter weekend than most, with teams winding down their fixtures and learners writing exams, the KZN slate presents an intriguing mix of matches.<\/p>\n

FIXTURES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Friday
\n<\/strong>Westville vs Northwood.<\/p>\n

Saturday
\n<\/strong>St Charles vs Glenwood, Maritzburg College vs Hilton, Clifton vs Kearsney.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kearsney College travels down to Durban for a face-off with Clifton, while St Charles hosts Glenwood, and Maritzburg College crosses swords with Hilton on Saturday. However, the weekend action kicks off with a tie between Westville and Northwood on Friday. Northwood heads into the contest on a high after putting on a great show for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":47368,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}