Goals aplenty for Beaulieu hockey players

In a one-sided affair, the South Africa indoor hockey men’s team were too good for the Gauteng Gryphons U23 All Stars team as the former won 14–4 in an exhibition match on 6 November.

The SA men’s team returned with a few fresh faces, notably 21-year-old Dayaan Cassiem who was brought in to captain the side in place of Jethro Eustice. The U23 side remained the same from their previous game against SA.

Cassiem’s influence was telling as he scored six goals, with his first goal coming in the first minute of the match and Marvin Simons adding two of his own. It was not all doom and gloom for the U23s though as they were able to crack the rock-solid defence of SA goalkeeper Bongamusa Mngoma.

Ryan Mann was the first to score for his side, putting the U23s on the scoreboard, giving them a slight confidence boost at 1–5 down. However, two more goals came from SA extending their lead to 7–1 before a short corner awarded to the U23s saw Dalpiarro Langford’s drag flick pulling one back.

The U23 celebration was short-lived as Chad Futcher and Cassiem scored a goal each.

U23 keeper Culin de Jager was taken off by coach Justin Rosenberg to bolster their attack and this paid off when Mann scored his second goal with the teams going into the break with SA leading 9–3.

The second half opened with a reverse stick goal from Keenan Wax of the U23s but Cassiem was quick to reply for SA.

The last 10 minutes belonged to SA with goals from Cassiem, Futcher and two more for Simons.

Cassiem was happy with his team’s performance. He concluded, “For me, it was great to get back into the swing of things and back on the field. As an international side, we obviously set a high standard as to how we want to play, and I think it definitely came through tonight.

“Some really good goals were scored by everyone. I just think we needed to work on our defence.”