Girl’s Senior Knockout
The girls’ soccer team from St Francis Xavier's College, Hamilton advanced to the semi-final of the NSWCCC Football Knockout with a 2-1 victory over MacKillop College, Warnervale.
It was a tight contest, however through grit and determination, the team consolidated in the second half, dominating possession.
Yasmin Popovic slammed home a fantastic long-range opening goal in 28th minute, while Ameera Makunja sealed the match with a goal in the 68th minute with a weaving run into the box, assisted by a brilliant ball from team captain, Bella Carlisle.
The defence stayed strong throughout the match and the girls played well as a team, embodying the spirit of fair play throughout the contest.
They will now head to Sydney on September 3 for the semi-finals.
Boy’s Senior Knockout
After being undefeated in the preliminary games and winning a hard fought 1 – 0 victory against All Saints’ College, Maitland in round one of the NSWCCC competition, the boy’s team from St Francis Xavier’s College were drawn to play against St Augustine’s College, Brookvale in the second round.
Playing on the synthetic turf at Speers Point Park, the team eventually lost 3 – 2 in the dying seconds of extra time by way of the ‘golden goal’ rule.
Having dominated the majority of the match, it was a desperately disappointing end to an entertaining encounter.
Team Coach, Michael Kerby was proud of all the players’ outstanding efforts and special mention to Bailey Wells who scored a wonder goal that gave the team their lead at 2-1.
Girl’s Junior Knockout
San Clemente High School, Mayfield won the Diocesan Gala Day in the junior girls division and managed to defeat Stella Marist College, Manly in a very close game to win a 1 – 0 victory in the NSWCCC Knockout quarterfinals.
They will now travel to Sydney for the semi-finals at Glenwood in September.
Boy’s Junior Knockout
The junior boys’ team from St Peter’s Campus, All Saints’ College, Maitland won their division during the Diocesan Gala Day. They have progressed and will now face St Edwards, Gosford to try to secure a place in the quarterfinal. They have had two washed out games and are rescheduled to play during week 2 of Term 3.
NSWCCC Individual Selections
In June, the NSWCCC Individual Football selections were held at Glenwood, Sydney, with both the Diocese’s open boys and open girls Diocesan Football teams having a successful NSWCCC carnival.
The boy’s team scored 13 goals and conceded only three goals over their four games. Unfortunately, the Metropolitan Catholic Schools (MCS) team scored a late goal during a mostly even game, which ultimately knocked Maitland-Newcastle out of the tournament to finish in third place.
Stand out performers from the team were Bailey Wells and Steven Theacos from St Francis Xavier’s College, Blake Archibald from All Saints’ College and Tap Goora from St Joseph’s College, Lochinvar. Tap and Blake were named in the NSWCCC team and will compete at NSW All Schools.
For the girls, they played their first game against the Bathurst-Armidale Diocese and ran out comfortable winners with a 4 – 0 victory.
Their second game was against a traditionally strong Wollongong team and in a closely contested encounter, the game ended in a 1 – 1 draw.
In the third game, the girls came up against a well organised team from Parramatta and despite having several opportunities to score and a missed penalty, the game ended in a 0 – 0 draw.
In the last game, the girl’s dominated against Southern Sydney with a 3 – 0 win.
The girls narrowly missed winning their pool and therefore did not progress to the final, finishing 3rd overall.
Bella Jade Carlisle from St Francis Xavier’s College and Bronte Peel from St Joseph’s were rewarded for their talent being named in the NSWCCC team.
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