On Tuesday, March 18 Clonard’s team maintained its proud heritage as the only school to have ever claimed the GISSA Girls Senior Futsal championship.
The follow-up to last’s years inaugural victory could not have been more impressive. Grouped with five other Geelong schools, Clonard immediately stamped its mark on the tournament with a resounding 8-0 win in the opening match versus Iona College.
Anastazia S took up right where she left off in last year’s comp by bagging five of the goals.
Saint Ignatius was next to succumb to the Clonard onslaught in a 13-0 rout. Three of our squad (of just eight girls) were Year 9 students who never took a backwards step whilst playing predominantly against Year 12 opponents. One of them, Finn S announced herself a star of the future with a goal in the opening match but when she added five more against Saint Ignatius, it became obvious she is a star of the now. Her year level colleague Isy E filled a key role as a midfield harrier, helping to protect our defence, while Vivienne C looked like she’d been playing forever and showed she could play in any position with equal impact, in doing so claiming a starting role in later matches.
The victories kept coming – 5-0 v Kardinia and 6-0 v Covenant College. After four matches we were yet to concede a goal, which was not terribly surprising with our “Rocks of Gibraltar” – co-captains Piper S (in goal) and Zoe S – protecting our goal mouth. Zoe also managed to find the net eight times at the other end throughout the day. It was already obvious that our final group match – versus Christian College – would be a Grand Final preview. It was a dead rubber (and Christian College played dead, leaving out several players) but our girls carried on regardless beating them 7-1.
Christian College showed up for the Grand Final with all players and all guns blazing. It was – by far – the quickest, most intense, and most competitive match of the tournament. The Clonard girls withstood an early onslaught and then took care of business as they had done all day. Anastazia S scored her fourth hat trick of the day when it mattered most and her sister, Lucy, continued her dynamic role as the team’s midfield engine alongside Hannah G who grafted to good effect all day and popped up with a couple of goals. Through their combined efforts our team ran out 7-2 winners to claim the championship.
Results:
Group Matches
Clonard 8 v Iona 0 (Anastazia 5, Lucy 1, Finn 1, Zoe 1)
Clonard 13 v Saint Ignatius (Hannah 1, Anastazia 2, Zoe 3, Finn 5, Lucy 2)
Clonard 5 v Kardinia 0 (Anastazia 4, Finn 1)
Clonard 6 v Covenant College 0 (Anastazia 4, Zoe 1, Hannah 1)
Clonard 7 v Christian College 1 (Zoe 1, Lucy 2, Anastazia 2, Finn 1, Vivienne 1)
Grand Final
Clonard 7 v Christian College 2 (Anastazia 3, Zoe 2, Lucy 1, Vivienne 1)
Piper and Zoe collected the pennant on behalf of the College. Zoe won her second consecutive player of the tournament medal and Anastazia was the leading scorer (as she was last year) with 20 goals for the day.
All the girls not only played excellently but behaved impeccably, too.
John Cahill
ICT Systems and Database Administrator
