Bulahdelah Central School narrowly misses out on nationals

The tournament was to decided spots at nationals in Brisbane in November.

The under 16s first tackled old rivals St Clare’s High School, Taree.

BCS played well early on with a 2-1 lead at half time. However, a few mistakes allowed St Clare’s to claw back and finish 3-all.

Bellingen High School was their next opponent and a few early goals against BCS set the pace against a difficult and determined team, BCS eventually lost 3-0.

Their final game was a must win match against Bishop Druitt College to progress to nationals.

Hunter and Beau’s aggressive, coordinated attacks had BCS up 2-0 inside the first three minutes of the match. However, inconsistency had let the team down as the final score finished 5-3 against BCS.

Due to some late injuries, some of the players featured in the under 19s. Game one against Heritage Christian College saw the boys behind from the start.

Their ‘never give up’ attitude saw them fight back to draw twice against a very hard team, but finally going down 3-2.

During game two, the side played a harder, faster and older team from Camden Haven High School and sadly went down 7-0.

With a large break until their next game, the team gathered with Mr Kinnear to work out set pieces.

This obviously paid off because during the first 2 minutes of game three against Hastings Secondary College, BCS were up 2-0.

This was due to some desperate diving from Hunter and another goal from Beau off the crossbar after Lachlan shot at a shivering Hastings defense from point blank range.

BCS held on to the 2-0 to win. The team knew that the final round game of the day was going to be another ‘do or die’ game.

The boys were confident going up against the hardest team in the competition, knowing their ability to make nationals would come down to goal difference.

At half-time BCS was only down 1-0. Goalkeeper Saxon made some quality saves. His reflexes and fearless defends kept the side in the game.

However, it appeared fitness got the best of BCS as they went down 5-1 and missed out on nationals by only three goals.