{"id":78407,"date":"2025-07-28T09:25:34","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T07:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=78407"},"modified":"2025-07-28T09:25:34","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T07:25:34","slug":"colin-mendoza-reflects-on-affies-historic-victory-over-maritzburg-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=78407","title":{"rendered":"Colin Mendoza reflects on Affies’ historic victory over Maritzburg College"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Affies 1st team was full of smiles after scoring a history-making victory over Maritzburg College. Photo: Afrikaanse Ho\u00ebr Seunskool – Affies\u00a0 on Facebook<\/strong><\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Saturday, in Pretoria, the Afrikaanse Ho\u00ebr Seunskool (Affies)<\/strong> 1st XI scored a dramatic 3-2 win over Maritzburg College<\/strong>, historically one of South Africa’s leading hockey-playing schools, to best their rivals for the first time on the Astro.<\/p>\n

They’ve come close in recent seasons, drawing 1-1 in 2024, 2-2 in 2023, and losing 1-2 in 2021.<\/p>\n

Saturday’s win, which came in front of a lively home crowd, left the Pretoria school with seven wins, four draws, and six losses so far this season.<\/p>\n

Affies’ Head of Hockey, Colin Mendoza<\/strong>, beaming with pride, credited his team\u2019s preparation and resilience for their victory: “We started with the first team last weekend, with two long training sessions, working off the rust a bit,” he shared. “This week, we focused on rebuilding connections during training, and rather than obsessing over Maritzburg, we worked hard on the weak points we identified.”<\/p>\n

A video analysis session on Thursday sparked a shift in the mindset of his players, reckoned Mendoza. “It became very clear to the boys that we felt this could be the year we beat them,” he said.<\/p>\n

Matchday began with mixed emotions. A loss for the Affies’ u14A team brought some nerves, but a win by the u16A team lifted the supporters’ energy.<\/p>\n

“The atmosphere after that was electric,” Mendoza recalled. “The schoolboys and spectators started to fill the pavilion, and there was a real sense of excitement.”<\/p>\n

From the first whistle, Affies hit their stride. Incredibly, they forged a 3-0 advantage through goals from captain Johan Pieterse<\/strong>, Gawie de Kock<\/strong>, and Rudolf Thiart<\/strong>. Maritzburg College, though, is renowned for the school’s never-say-die spirit and they capitalised on a yellow card to claw back two quick goals. Affies, though, held on for a cherished victory.<\/p>\n

“We knew that we needed a good start. Keeping a clean sheet in the first quarter was our first goal,” said Mendoza.<\/p>\n

“Going 3-0 up was very exciting and the boys started to believe. When Maritzburg came back strong, we didn’t crumble. Affies boys never stop fighting, and that showed in the final minutes.”<\/p>\n

The final whistle confirmed a long-awaited and hard-fought victory.<\/p>\n

“This is the first time we have beaten their first team,” Mendoza said proudly. “It’s a big step for the Affies’ hockey programme.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, in Pretoria, the Afrikaanse Ho\u00ebr Seunskool (Affies) 1st XI scored a dramatic 3-2 win over Maritzburg College, historically one of South Africa’s leading hockey-playing schools, to best their rivals for the first time on the Astro. They’ve come close in recent seasons, drawing 1-1 in 2024, 2-2 in 2023, and losing 1-2 in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":78408,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78407","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\/78407","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=78407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/78408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}