The Eunice High School’s first hockey team competed in the annual St Mary’s Hockey Festival, for which 32 of the best hockey teams in the country came together in Johannesburg.
As the defending champions, Eunice had some stiff competition, with each team fighting for a place in the final.
Eunice played 12 tough matches across four days – they won nine, drew one, and lost one before they advanced through to the final match of the festival.
In the semifinal match, Eunice had to show exactly what they were made of, when the Paarl Gimnasium team evened the score to one-all.
With just 17 seconds left in the match, Eunice striker Bianca Rees-Gibbs scored a goal and they went through to the final match with a 2 – 1 victory over the Paarl team.
The final match was a nail-biting one, as the Eunice team went head-on against the Durban Girls’ College.
Facing off against the KwaZulu-Natal team had already proven to be challenging, as their clash was the only match Eunice had lost in the play-offs up until the final.
The match started with Durban Girls scoring within the first three minutes.
Eunice evened the score with 14 minutes left on the clock.
With nine minutes remaining, the schools were tied at two-all. With only four minutes left, Durban Girls managed to score from a penalty corner to eventually win the match 3 – 2.
Bianca gave a commendable performance this tournament. She scored ten goals and was awarded two top accolades, namely the best player of the tournament and the top goal-scorer of the tournament.
