{"id":76578,"date":"2025-07-01T20:19:40","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T18:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=76578"},"modified":"2025-07-01T20:19:40","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T18:19:40","slug":"eastern-province-top-of-the-pool-a-pops-at-sashoc-national-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=76578","title":{"rendered":"Eastern Province top of the Pool A pops at SASHOC National Week"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Eastern Province A took the game to the defending champions, Southern Gauteng A, and were rewarded with a 3-2 win, their third on the trot on the opening two days of the SASHOC National Week. Photo: Teamphoto SA<\/strong><\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Eastern Province A<\/strong> extended their winning streak to three games in a row with a hard-fought 3-2 victory over the defending champions, Southern Gauteng A<\/strong>, in a Pool A contest at the u18 SASHOC National Week<\/strong>, played at Maritzburg College<\/strong>, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The win strengthened Eastern Province A’s position at the top of Pool A.<\/p>\n

“Today was a fight. Southern Gauteng brought the heat, and the girls had to dig deep to come away with a win. They performed as a team,” Geowynne Gamiet<\/strong>, the Eastern Province A coach, told Supersport Schools Plus<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Eastern Province’s captain, Abigail Holderness<\/strong>, is one of the few players who was part of their 2024 team. She’s been a standout, leading from the front, while letting her experience and hockey IQ do the talking for her on the Astro this year.<\/p>\n

The DSG Makhanda<\/strong> learner has also been on the scoresheet in all three games of Eastern Province’s game, and has six goals to her name, the most by a player so far in the tournament.<\/p>\n

In the first chukka of their showdown with Southerns, Holderness scored the opener, a penalty stroke, just before the end of the quarter. Kerrin Gillies<\/strong> doubled their lead with a penalty corner four minutes into the second chukka.<\/p>\n

Amber Fairon<\/strong> cut Eastern Province A\u2019s lead in half with a goal from a penalty corner in the 34th minute.<\/p>\n

Trailing by a goal, Natasha le Roux<\/strong>‘s side exerted pressure onto Eastern Province and, as Gamiet put it, his charges had to dig deep.<\/p>\n

Eastern Province didn’t sit back and wait for Southerns to attack them. They responded with forays of their own into the opposition half and they were rewarded when\u00a0Kate Brennan<\/strong> restored their two-goal cushion with a field goal in the 53rd minute.<\/p>\n

Southern Gauteng A refused to give up the fight and fought to the literal final second, as evidenced by their second goal, a well-worked move, which was finished by Keovaan Jansen <\/strong>just before the final whistle.<\/p>\n

Boland A<\/strong> recovered from their 1-2 loss to Eastern Province A on Monday with a 3-0 win over Southern Gauteng B<\/strong>. Coach Chris Gerber’<\/strong>s side produced a clinical performance against coach Garth Neilson’<\/strong>s charges.<\/p>\n

“The girls played with the with the right intensity throughout. They kept the ball nicely and controlled the game for long periods,” Gerber shared.<\/p>\n

Leah du Plessis<\/strong> is one of the leading goal-scorers at the inter-provincial tournament with four goals in three outings and she put Boland ahead with a penalty corner conversion in the 12th minute.<\/p>\n

“Leah works extremely hard on and off the ball. She also has a way of getting herself into great positions,” Gerber said.<\/p>\n

Jon\u00e9 de Winnaar<\/strong> doubled the Boland lead with a strike in the 20th minute. Like the first one, De Winnaar’s goal also came from a penalty corner. Elr\u00e9 Oosthuizen<\/strong> scored her second goal of the tournament and Boland’s third in the 26th minute.<\/p>\n

The Western Cape side’s success was as much the result of the forwards doing a great job up front as it was because of their sound defensive work. Gerber’s charges were solid at the back and fought hard in one-on-one situations.<\/p>\n

“They stayed in the challenge for as long as possible,” Gerber explained. “They also manipulated space well and did a great job connecting with the midfielders and forwards.”<\/p>\n

Boland has an opportunity to pick up a third win when they face Northern Gauteng B<\/strong> at 07:30 on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

The two Southern Gauteng sides will square off in a derby away from home at 08:55, while Eastern Province A has a potentially tricky assignment against Southern Free State A<\/strong> at 10:20.<\/p>\n

Results<\/strong><\/p>\n

Southern Free State A: 5<\/strong> – Nthati Monyai, Georgia Kambanis, Xylia Choene, Bianca Rees-Gibbs, Quincley Norris. Northern Gauteng B: 0<\/strong>.
\nEastern Province A: 3<\/strong> – Abigail Holderness, Kerrin Gillies, Kate Brennan. Southern Gauteng A: 2<\/strong> – Amber Fairon, Keovaan Jansen.
\nBoland A: 3<\/strong> – Leah du Plessis, Jon\u00e9 de Winnaar, Elr\u00e9 Oosthuizen. Southern Gauteng B: 0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eastern Province A extended their winning streak to three games in a row with a hard-fought 3-2 victory over the defending champions, Southern Gauteng A, in a Pool A contest at the u18 SASHOC National Week, played at Maritzburg College, on Tuesday. The win strengthened Eastern Province A’s position at the top of Pool A. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":76579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76578","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\/76578","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=76578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/76579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}