First up in SA U18 girls A Section, KZN Coastal produced some sublime goals interspersed with mediocrity in beating a competitive Southern Gauteng B 3-0, the score 1-0 at the changeover. Goals went to Courtney Slaney, vice-captain Teagan McFall and Tegan Fourie.
Western Province A took their chances while Northerns didn’t in a 2-0 win, the goals going to their outstanding players captain Jamie Southgate and Nicola du Plessis.
KZN Inland A fought hard against the defending champion Boland line-up, opening the scoring in the 18th minute through Julia Raw, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Bolanders who netted via voice-captain Stephanie Botha and captain Frances Carstens.
Eastern Province were impressive in accounting for Northerns B 3-0 with captain Lenta Cullinan, Ongeziwe Mali and Kelsey Minnaar getting on the scoresheet.
Amathole, who have boxed below their weight, outlasted Mpumalanga 4-2 with goals from Claudelle McKay (2), Teagan de Bloe and Jamie-Lee Marais.
Southern Gauteng A won the top of the group clash with Southern Free State 2-1 with strikes coming from Lezaan Jansen van Vuuren, Agin Kungoane, Courtney Abrahams while vice-captain Minke van Heerden kept the Free Staters in the hunt with a goal in the 41st minute but the remaining 19 minutes in the match brought no tangible results.
Northerns A edged Southern Gauteng B 3-2 after the score was 0-0 at half-time. The winners were decided with seconds on the clock when Mialette Kock grabbed her second penalty corner (PC) goal, the other going to Zeane Smith while Almay van der Linde and Monique Brummer scored for Southerns B.
The upshot is that Southerns A lead Pool B with 12 points and an overwhelming goal difference of 19. Southern Free State lie second on seven points, marginally ahead of Eastern Province and Amathole.
Mpumalanga and Northerns B account for the rest of Pool A.
Boland are through to the semi-finals with 12 points, a fill house from four matches, while KZN Coastal and Northerns, Western Province are neck-and-neck on seven and six points respectively.
