Wednesday the 6th of September we met the MMI girls football team at Gordon Spratt Football Park. The MMI and Papamoa College girls football teams had arrived early in the morning to begin warming up. Both teams had won all of their previous games and intended to keep it that way, but this morning that was about to change.
A quick chat with coach Maia Ririnui before the game gave us some insights of how the team has been going so far in the tournament. He said that the team has been playing really well together and have had all wins so far. One of the games on Tuesday put a lot of pressure on the team where they scored a goal early. In the last 5 mins, Yasmine and Belle both broke the strong defenders who had been putting pressure on them for the whole game and managed to score a goal each to win the game. Today’s game will be a challenge as both teams will want to win to go through.
The game began at 9:30 am and each team had time to warm up and prepare. Pap did their cheer which was shortly followed by Mounts and each team found their positions and the game began!
Both teams started off strongly passing the ball but as the game was continuing it soon became noticeable that neither team seemed to be able to take a hold and score. As MMI tried to score, the goalie from the Pap team would be there ready. But oh, what’s this? Pap kicks the ball out and MMI is able to have a throw-in, Belle gets a great pass from Yasmine and scores for MMI! The team and sideline breathe a sigh of relief to get the first points of the game. The game continued to go back and forth with strong football tackling skills.
With such strong defence from Holly and Yasmine the ball never met Papamoa’s goal. With a short break in half time the team was able to recuperate and continue to play a strong game. Harlow was able to score MMIs second goal and just to top it all of Belle was able to score MMIs third!
Both teams had great support from parents and on-lookers and I couldn’t help but notice one especially special fan… MMIs one and only Lulu! Greta’s dog! With a green ribbon on her collar, I would say Lulu is the MMI girls football team’s lucky charm.
Both teams played well and it was great the sportsmanship of the players shaking hands and congratulating each other at the end of the game. Way to go girls!
By Indigo Semple
Members of MMIs Girls Football team:
Ani Skiffington, Belle Ririnui, Cleo Mann, Frankie Thom, Greta Wagstaff, Harlow Horne, Holly James, Indi Weston, Lillian Akagi, Neve Walker, Sienna Evans, Yasmine Gardner, Zippora Comber
