{"id":72641,"date":"2025-05-18T07:38:37","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T05:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=72641"},"modified":"2025-05-18T07:38:37","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T05:38:37","slug":"jeppe-to-defend-aitken-cup-title-against-st-stithians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=72641","title":{"rendered":"Jeppe to defend Aitken Cup title against St Stithians"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Jeppe captain Ethan Kapanda. Photo: Jeppe High School for Boys on Facebook<\/strong><\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jeppe High School for Boys<\/strong> lived up to expectations as the tournament\u2019s favourites when they booked a place in the final of the\u00a0Aitken Cup<\/strong>, setting up another date with St Stithians College<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The big game takes place at the University of the Witwatersrand<\/strong> at 15:00 on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Saturday saw the playing of the quarterfinals and semi-finals, and there were some surprises.<\/p>\n

In a rematch of the 2024 final, Jeppe\u00a0cruised past Parktown Boys’ High<\/strong>, scoring a dominant 4-0 victory in the quarterfinals, with Adrian Laubscher <\/strong>netting twice, and Raphael Madzivandondo <\/strong>and Juan Martin <\/strong>adding to the goal tally.<\/p>\n

Coach David Grace’<\/strong>s Parktown side had a tough day on the Astro. In their second outing, they fell to Helpmekaar Kollege after a penalty shootout. They’ll face St Benedict’s College <\/strong>on Sunday for seventh place.<\/p>\n

Jeppe took on King Edward VII School<\/strong> (KES<\/em><\/strong>) in the semi-finals. The Aitken Cup had brought up a personal milestone for the Red Sticks<\/strong><\/em>‘ skipper, Fynn Campbell<\/strong>, who achieved the 100-game milestone for his sides. However, he and his team’s title aspirations were halted one step from the final.<\/p>\n

KES had earlier handled Helpmekaar, scoring a convincing 3-1 win. However, they met their match in the fast-paced Jeppe side, who ran out 4-2 winners, with goals from captain Ethan Kapanda<\/strong>, Ezray Stadt<\/strong>, Juan Martin<\/strong>, and Tshimologo Mogale<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Speaking with SuperSport Schools Plus <\/strong><\/a>after the match, Kapanda praised his teammates for their resilience and unity: “Aitken has been anything but smooth,” he said. “In the last few games, every player had to step up, and they did. We worked as a unit, and that reflected on the scoresheet.”<\/p>\n

St Stithians, meanwhile, delivered a couple of strong performances to canter into the title decider. They defeated St Benedict’s 5-2 in the quarterfinals and followed that up with a solid 3-0 victory over St David’s Marist Inanda<\/strong> in the semifinals.<\/p>\n

They’ve already faced Jeppe in the Aitken Cup. On Friday, when they met in a pool match, Jeppe claimed a 3-1 win, but that result will have no bearing on Sunday’s final.<\/p>\n

St David’s will face KES for third, while fifth place will be up for grabs when Helpmekaar and St John’s College<\/strong> meet.<\/p>\n

After losing to KES in their first outing on Saturday, Helpmekaar shared an exciting clash with Parktown. It ended 3-3, but Helpies <\/strong><\/em>then claimed a heart-in-mouth 4-3 victory in a penalty shootout.<\/p>\n

HeronBridge College<\/strong> bagged their first victory, edging Fourways High School<\/strong> 2-1, which came as a welcome change of fortune. Playing in a group that included both finalists, they had previously conceded more goals than any other team.<\/p>\n

RESULTS
\n<\/strong>
\nWits<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jeppe 4-0 Parktown
\nKES 3-1 Helpmekaar
\nSt Benedict’s 2-5 St Stithians
\nSt John’s 0-3 St David’s
\nParktown (3) 3-3 (4) Helpmekaar
\nJeppe 4-2 KES
\nSt Benedict’s (3)3-3(4) St John’s
\nSt Stithians 3-0 St David’s
\n
\nUJ<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trinityhouse Rand Park Ridge 2-1 Beaulieu
\nRand Park Ridge (4) 1-1 (1) Northcliff
\nMonument 8-0 HeronBridge
\nNoordheuwel 2-1 Fourways
\nBeaulieu 4-1 Northcliff
\nTrinityhouse Rand Park Ridge 4-0 Rand Park Ridge
\nHeronBridge 2-1 Fourways
\nMonument\u00a03-2\u00a0Noordheuwel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeppe High School for Boys lived up to expectations as the tournament\u2019s favourites when they booked a place in the final of the\u00a0Aitken Cup, setting up another date with St Stithians College. The big game takes place at the University of the Witwatersrand at 15:00 on Sunday. Saturday saw the playing of the quarterfinals and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":72642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72641","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\/72641","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}