UNDER 18’s CHAMPIONSHIPS – MEXICO. The South African Under 18 National Ice hockey team returned back to Johannesburg South Africa from the tournament in Monterrey Mexico with the bronze medal.
After a hard fought tournament and with two new young coaches behind the bench, the team is satisfied with bronze and many of their players will be returning next year to continue where they left off.
The team’s first game of the tournament was against the hosts Mexico; with the stadium been full the tension in the arena was high as this was going to be a competitive game. Mexico got off to a good start scoring on the power play at 08:33 in the first periodand teams entered the break with Mexico leading 1-0. The scoring started early in the second period with the Mexican player H Chavez scoring the second goal at 24:51 in the second period. Mexico then scored their third goal on a 4 on 4 situation with one player from each bench in the penalty box. J Septien the scorer. There were no more goals scored in the second period and Mexico entered the break with a 3 goal cushion.
The game looked done and dusted but as South Africans they have a fighting nature in them and scored at 41:12 in the third period; the goal scored by team RSA Captain Cai Nebe. The Mexicans rallied back and scored their 4th goal 29 seconds later through C Smithers. South Africa’s second was scored by Chad Williams 46:23. This is how the game ended Mexico 4 – 2 South Africa, to the joy of the Mexican fans who packed the arena.
All the teams had the next day off which gave them a chance to work on some errors made in the game the previous day. It was evident that it paid off as South Africa faced Ireland the day after and triumphed 7-2, a great victory and a good morale booster for the boys from Africa.
South Africa’s third game was against New Zealand. This great rivalry between the two teams transfers between sports and there is a particular rivalry between RSA and New Zealand when it comes to rugby and cricket. The boys from RSA were really looking forward to this game, unfortunately on their way home from training before the New Zealand game the Team South Africa bus was caught in cross fire between the Mexican Police and Drug Cartel. The Drug Cartel blocked off the street using two abandoned busses, thankfully though the bus driver of Team South Africa was aware and skilled enough and got the team out of danger without anyone been injured. This played with the boys’ minds as many of them were traumatised but they still went on to face New Zealand with all guns blazing. New Zealand ended up victorious by a score of 5-2 thanks a great 4 goal performance by star forward Gareth Lloyd.
The result of this game meant New Zealand would play Mexico for Gold with South Africa Taking on Israel for the Bronze. This was a daunting task for the boys as New Zealand only just beat the Israelis 9-8 and Mexico triumphed over them 3-2. The game started off with a bang with team RSA taking the lead 28-seconds into the first period thanks to a goal from Baden Best. His effort was followed up at 07:30 by Uthman Samaai who turned out to be the hero for RSA on the day. Israel fought back and at 11:18 they scored through S Cooper, so teams entered the first break with RSA leading 2-1.
In the second only 1 goal was scored. RSA went ahead 3-1 through a goal by Uthman Samaai at 36:40. This was the only action of the second period and the teams entered the break with Israel trailing 3-1.
The Israel coach must have said something to inspire is side as they came out in the third period to tie the game at 3-3. The two goals were scored by the hero of Israel S Cooper, his second goal at 51:58 bought them to within the 1 goal then at 58:15 he struck again scoring his hatrick and more importantly the game tying goal.
The game ended at 3-3 and the two teams then went into the standard 5minute overtime period. At the end of the 5 minutes the game was still tied which meant only one thing: PENALTY SHOOTOUT!
This was the first and only shoot out of this tournament. J Nebe was in goals for RSA and A Lashinsky for Israel. As RSA were the home team they went first, the shot taken by captain C Nebe was saved. Israel’s star of the game S Cooper then had his opportunity to seal his mark on the game but the SA Goaltender stood firm and saved the hatrick hero’s penalty shot. South Africa’s hero Uthman Samaai then had his chance to show what he could do and to the excitement of the whole bench the South African scored, to make it 1-0 on penalty shootouts and 4-3 for the South Africans. The next player to go for Israel was K Malachi, his shot was saved by the South African Keeper. The excitement of brining home the bronze was starting to show on the faces of team RSA and as the last and final player of Israel, V Shvarzman skated up to be the hero for Israel, the South African goaltender stood firm and saved his shot.
With that RSA had won the bronze medal.
The gold medal game between New Zealand and Mexico was won by New Zealand 5-4 who fought from a 3-0 deficit to win thanks to two goals a piece by C Harrison and G Lloyd.
The final Standings were
1: New Zealand.
2: Mexico
3: South Africa
4: Israel
5: Ireland
Contact: gary.bock@prohockeynews.com
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