WBHS downs Glenwood in soccer thriller

WESTVILLE Boy’s High School beat Glenwood 4-1 in a thrilling soccer match at the weekend.

Westville started the game strong and had two clear cut chances in the first 15 minutes of the game. The first coming off a WBHS free kick which was played into the Glenwood box, and was met by Bradley Smith who headed the ball square across the box to Kyan Braithwaite, whose own header narrowly missed the target. The second was when WBHS winger Sipesihle Mhlamvu latched onto a bad, back pass from the Glenwood defence, leaving him one on one with the Glenwood goal keeper, only to put his effort wide of the left upright. Twenty minutes into the game, Glenwood began to gain confidence from WBHS’s near misses, and started to play better football. Their midfield created some good interchange football, but created few goal scoring opportunities. Overall, the teams were fairly well matched, and went into the break with the score 0-0, after an eventful first half.

WBHS lost some defensive shape at the start of the second half and were made to pay for this in the 47th minute when Glenwood took the lead through a well-taken goal by their striker, who beat two Westville defenders before calmly chipping to ball past Jesse Smit, WBHS’s goal keeper.

This seemed to spark some life into the WBHS players, and a minute later, in the 48th minute, they equalized, after finally taking advantage of one of their trademark, long throw-ins. WBHS’s left back Ibraheem Vahed threw the ball to the back post where it was met by Tony Mahlangu, who tapped it in for a simple finish to make the score 1-1. Westville started to turn up the heat in the final 15 minutes of the game and took the lead in the 54th minute, when Tony Mahlangu won the ball on the half way line, beat a Glenwood defender before chipping the ball over the Glenwood defence for right winger Shane Ball to chip the ball calmly over the Glenwood goal keeper for a beautifully taken finish, making the score 2-1. WBHS scored their third goal in the 58th minute when Tony Mahlangu stole the ball from a Glenwood defender deep in Glenwood territory, and slotted the ball into the bottom right corner to make it 3-1. They then made it 4-1 in the 60th minute when Shane Ball crossed the ball in from the right flank for Kyan Braithwaite to volley home, and seal an emphatic Westville win.