Latest Hockey from our Junior 4, Junior 1, U14A, U14B and Senior 2nd Team
With news from our Junior 4, Junior 1, U14A, U14B and Senior 2nd teams, this week’s Hockey report holds details of matches, players and highlights in terms of development and outcomes.
Hockey Team in the Spotlight: Junior 4s
Our Junior 4s have had a great start to the Hockey season – unbeaten so far and scoring lots of goals. Eleven goals have been scored in their four matches at time of writing and only three conceded.
This team is learning how to grind out positive results, with a good mix of Year 8 experience and composure, and Year 7 enthusiasm and desire to learn. After a big win over RHS and a satisfying draw against Fram College’s 3rd team, the team took confidence into two matches last week. These two games were contrasting wins but proves how a good team gets it done.
Against Ipswich High School U13C, our team grew in confidence throughout the game and started to play nice attacking patterns. This confidence came from solid defending and distribution from our left and right back, Year 8’s Mazie and Isabella, and saves from our two goalies, Year 7’s Nina and Najma. Goals came at regular intervals, two by captain and Player of the Match, Year 8’s India, and one each by Year 7’s Georgie and Year 8’s Amber who made an immediate impact when she came on the pitch with strong passing and a great set piece play at the short corner. Year 8’s Jemima worked tirelessly in midfield and forward positions and was a real play maker for the team. A very nice win to go into the tough game against Norwich School the next day.
This time the team scraped and battled for their win, but so they did. The only Woodbridge team to get a win against the tough Norwich opposition on the day, Jemima continued her spirited play and scored both Woodbridge goals!
Well done to the 4s for such a great half term. Miss Sanders loves coaching you and we love how you play with such good team spirit and enjoyment.
More Hockey Highlights
After the amazing success of Woodbridge School Prep U11’s winning the U11 County Cup, the Junior 1 team was determined to leave their mark on the U13 County event.
Strong performances and mature game management under pressure in their three pool matches, saw the team qualify for the semi-final. This game against Ipswich High School was a great tournament knock out game. Woodbridge executed their plans well but could just not build as much attacking momentum as in the previous two games. A great PC strike was the thing that beat us.
Not deflated, Woodbridge approached their battle against Barnardiston for the third place with their usual search for excellence. After a great power goal by captain India, we played the game out to secure the 3rd place in the County.
One of the many magic moments of the day was a sublime diving stick save by Year 8’s Clem against OBH to keep our lead, a well taken quick free hit and solo goal by Year 7’s Chloe and a all-round Player of the Day performance by Year 8’s Alexandra. Goals on the day were scored by Year 8’s Ella (2), India (2) and Chloe (Y7).
The U14B team of Year 9 girls, are also showing how much they are learning and enjoying playing together. A completely dominant performance against RHS last week, saw them only come away with a draw, but deserving so much more. Lovely passing hockey and good decision making, combined with strong defending allowed Woodbridge to make so many chances. It was just the last touch eluding them, or the GK getting in the way. Imogen was a star up front and deservedly voted as Player of the Match by our team. Marina was dominant in midfield as was captain, Isabel. Mr Wheelhouse will be very proud of the way the team executed their “3 x SPEED” (ball… thoughts… feet). Freya in goal was a game changer at the end too, having to make important saves when there were dangerous breakaways. Well done to this team; such a great group of players and people.
Mr Brous reports
The U14A team also had an end-to-end game at Rushmere, playing against an Ipswich School U14B/A combination team. Mr Brous reported on the match.
This match was a fiercely competitive, and well-balanced in terms of match-up. We dominated the first 10 minutes, but their keeper was outstanding and made several great saves. As the match progressed Ipswich gained in confidence and began to make in-roads into our defence. With fatigue setting in, we began to lose control and started making passes that were intercepted, allowing for Ipswich to counter-attack. However, the defence remained strong, and several impressive saves by Bay kept us in the match. We held on through some strong attacks by Ipswich in the last five minutes to draw the game. Special mention must go to Lottie, who worked incredibly hard up and down the pitch, and was the teams’ Player of the Match.
Our Senior 2nd team made the long journey to Wymondham, to take on their U16A team. It was a journey well worth making as all reports from the match were about how well our team played . A solid win with goals from Year 12’s Lily as well as Year 13’s Amelie and Millie.
Well done to these teams and all the others who represented our School so well last week and over the whole half term.
