Bellingen High had three girls teams playing in the Northern NSW Championships held over August 13–16 in Port Macquarie.
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The 14 years girls were the first to take on the best Futsal teams from Taree in the south to Tweed Heads in the north and west to Tamworth and Armidale on Tuesday, August 14.
With a bit of a slow start the girls managed to finish second in their pool, which put them in to the semi-finals against first place from the other pool, Oxley High.
This was a high quality game with both teams matching each other and the full time score of 4-4. This meant the all too common sudden death extra time.
The teams could not be split in extra time with no goal scored. So a penalty shoot out followed with Sophie Boyd, Summer Hogan and Indianna Brodbeck taking our shots. They made no mistakes and on the second round through Oxley missed and the semi was ours 4-4(7-6).
The final against Camden Haven was also evenly matched with the final score again 4-4 putting the game again in to sudden death extra time. This time Camden Haven slotted one in and the game was over. The girls were still so happy as they had qualified to go to the Australian Titles by finishing in the top two.
Special mention must be made that three of the girls in this team were only 12 years old this year so they have two more years in this division – so the future looks bright! Also Sophie Boyd and Indianna Brodbeck really displayed great skill throughout the day.
Wednesday saw the 16 years girls take the court (less Ashley Sticker who was playing Futsal in Brazil!). The girls got through their preliminary games winning 5 out of 5, scoring 21 goals for with only 5 against. This put them in to the semi against St Columba College and they wasted no time getting a lead then winning 4-1. The final against Oxley High was much closer but the girls held strong to win 4-2. This was a great result for the Northern NSW Champions.
Finally Thursday saw the 19 years girls take the court. Their campaign started very slowly with a 0-3 loss to Chatham High. They won the rest of their preliminary games, however, not without drama as they seemed to enjoy giving the opposition a start and then coming from behind showing their ability to take the lead easily.
The semi-final against Wauchope High saw a strong performance, with a 3-1 win and the final against Chatham High was their best game dominating 6-2 and conceding a late goal to win 6-3. This made another Northern NSW Champion team from Bellingen HS.
With only three age divisions in the girls BHS won two and were runners-up in the other division. A fantastic result!
The boys qualified in three different age groups, U13, U14 and U16. The U13 boys were competing in a group of 5 with the aim to come in the top 4 to reach semi’s. They put in a high level of effort against some very strong teams, developing their Futsal skills as they progressed. A draw against St Columba was enough to get them to the semi final. Unfortunately their semi was against the eventual winners, a very strong Bishop Druitt team. The boys played valiantly eventually going down 3-1.
The U14s have progressed extremely well over the year and this was evident in all of their group games. They won all 3 games against Camden Haven HS, Heritage Christian School and Taree HS scoring an impressive 15 goals. The team progressed to play Hastings HS in the semi final, unfortunately this was one game too many for the boys on the day, their legs looked heavy and they were unable to reproduce their form of the round games.
The U16 boys trained hard in preparation for the tournament, showing some really strong potential. This potential was evident in their group games which began with a narrow defeat to St Clare, followed by a win against Bulladelah and then a defeat at the hands of BDC. This mixed bag of results meant that the U16s did not make it to the semi finals.