{"id":74689,"date":"2025-06-08T08:37:44","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T06:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=74689"},"modified":"2025-06-08T08:37:44","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T06:37:44","slug":"st-benedicts-downs-st-davids-in-a-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=74689","title":{"rendered":"St Benedict&#8217;s downs St David&#8217;s in a thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_74705\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-74705\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-74705 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/hockey-st-benedicts-070625-400x279.jpg\" alt=\"After a tight contest that ebbed and flowed, St Benedict's College pulled off a 2-1 win at St David's Marist Inanda. Photo: St Benedict's College on Facebook.\" width=\"400\" height=\"279\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-74705\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">After a tight contest that ebbed and flowed, St Benedict&#8217;s College pulled off a 2-1 win at St David&#8217;s Marist Inanda. Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/stbenedictscollegebedfordview\"><strong>St Benedict&#8217;s College on Facebook<\/strong><\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For most teams, the weekend presented them with their last matches of the second term. <strong>St Benedict&#8217;s College<\/strong> ensured it was one they would remember with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over <strong>St David&#8217;s Marist Inanda<\/strong>, away from home.<\/p>\n<p>Keenly contested, the momentum swung back and forth as the sides took shots at one another.<\/p>\n<p>Early on, <em><strong>Bennies<\/strong><\/em> enjoyed control and that earned them a reward when, from a penalty corner, <strong>Alex Johnston<\/strong> delivered a brilliant drag flick to put them 1-0 up.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The game was good. It was a tough game. We created quite a lot of chances earlier on,&#8221; St Benedict&#8217;s coach, <strong>Owen Mvimbi<\/strong>, told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SchoolofHockey\"><strong>SuperSport Schools Plus<\/strong><\/a> after the game. &#8220;Then, St David&#8217;s got their momentum back.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Bennies&#8217; coach also identified a couple of top performers, saying: &#8220;<strong>Connor Odgers<\/strong> played well. We started dominating the right-hand side. <strong>Matteo Stepcevich<\/strong> (St David&#8217;s) also dominated in the midfield. He played really well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>St Benedict&#8217;s extended their lead from another penalty corner. This time, though, it was <strong>Josh Grobler<\/strong> who handled the drag flick.<\/p>\n<p>St David&#8217;s was not about to go quietly, though, and a swift counterattack saw <strong>Jared Beilings<\/strong> providing the finish to make it 2-1.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The game was hot. The crowd went crazy,&#8221; Mvimbi said, recalling the intensity of the second half, especially after Beilings&#8217; strike.<\/p>\n<p>Bennies thought they had scored a third, but Grobler&#8217;s effort was disallowed.<\/p>\n<p>In a frenzied finish, both teams had opportunities to add to their tallies from penalty corners, but the goalkeepers and defenders stood tall.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Johnstone saved one on the line, and their keeper made some good saves, too,&#8221; Mvimbi said. &#8220;Players started to panic a bit, getting a few more cards, but the game ended at 2-1.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>On the <strong>Weinberg Astro<\/strong>, at <strong>King Edward VII (KES)<\/strong>, the <em><strong>Red Sticks<\/strong><\/em> were held to a 1-1 draw by <strong>Helpmekaar Kollege<\/strong> in their last outing of the term.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, in Pretoria, <strong>Afrikaanse Ho\u00ebr Seunskool<\/strong> <strong>(Affies)<\/strong> took on <strong>Die Ho\u00ebrskool Menlopark<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>After suffering a sobering 0-6 defeat to high-flying Jeppe last time out, Affies, with typical character, put that loss behind them and delivered a strong performance to down Menlo 4-1.<\/p>\n<p>Nearby, <strong>Pretoria Boys High <\/strong>faced the daunting task of facing unbeaten Jeppe on the occasion of Boys High&#8217;s 124th birthday. Credit to the home team, they gave it their all. However, in the end Jeppe&#8217;s clean record remained intact, albeit by a slim 1-0 margin.<\/p>\n<p><strong>St Alban&#8217;s College<\/strong> enjoyed home ground advantage against <strong>St John&#8217;s<\/strong> College, but the visitors rose to the challenge against a team that has enjoyed a strong season.<\/p>\n<p>It rained goals, but at the end of the four chukkas there was nothing to separate the sides, and it ended 3-3 after an enthralling clash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For most teams, the weekend presented them with their last matches of the second term. St Benedict&#8217;s College ensured it was one they would remember with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over St David&#8217;s Marist Inanda, away from home. Keenly contested, the momentum swung back and forth as the sides took shots at one another. Early [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":74705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74689","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\/74689","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=74689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/74705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}