After getting a win over Napier Boys’ High School the hard way during the Super 8 Tournament, the PlaceMakers PNBHS 1st XI Football team looked to retain the McGlashan Cup in easier fashion during the school sports exchange on Wednesday. While the first five minutes looked like a repeat of Super 8, PNBHS came back to win the game convincingly, 4-1.
The first five minutes of the fixture were again, a coach’s nightmare. Going down in the match early, PNBHS made winning the game more difficult right from the outset. This appeared to be the only five minutes where Napier had control over the game, however, with PNBHS resetting at the restart and making short work of the handicap they’d created themselves. Riley Maclean’s effort was deemed a whisker offside before Daniel McDougal’s long-range free-kick effort was saved. Jaiden Meyer kicked things off for PNBHS, finishing a well-worked team goal – the ball travelling from Brooklyn Browne to the goalmouth in 14 touches over the period of 14 seconds. Aadesh Ganugapati dislocating his shoulder in the process of assisting the goal, took a quick breather to reset it before re-joining the game. Xavier Coleman joined with Ben Mori to cut the ball back across the box for Jaiden Meyer to take the lead of the game. A solid defensive effort kept one end of the turf quiet, with the PNBHS block proving effective and impenetrable. Napier’s efforts to play over the top were squashed by the safe hands of Brooklyn Browne.
The second half was more of the same – PNBHS held more possession and maintained a high percentage of passes completed, working the ball goalward swiftly in attacking transitions. Ben Mori was called to the spot to convert a penalty kick after Thomas Bell was chopped down in the box by the last defender. Wanting one of his own, Thomas brought down a long ball from Jayden Simpson, beating two defenders and the keeper to notch up the 4th goal for PNBHS. Adding to the overall winning tally of the exchange, the PlaceMakers PNBHS retain the McGlashan Cup for another year.
The team now looks to finish their Horizon’s Premiership season strong with two more games to come, as well as two midweek games against Rongotai College and St. Pats Silverstream before ramping up to Nationals at the end of the month.
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