Year 7/8 Girls All Schools Touch - State Finals   

Congratulations to our Year 7/8 girls Touch Football team, who braved an extremely cold early morning rise to travel down to Tuggerah on the Central Coast to compete at the All Schools Touch State Finals on Tuesday, 2 August.

Our girls displayed amazing determination, outstanding resilience, and exceptional levels of skill to go through all five of their pool matches undefeated!  This was an amazing feat, with only one other school going through the day undefeated, the overall winners and state champions, Hunter Sports High.

Back Row (L-R):  Ruby Polson, Marley Brown, Pyper Cross, Lucy Millard & Addison Hogan
Front Row (L-R):  Eve Montague, Sara Harris, Marley Marriott, Miller Morrissey & Taylor Brown

In their opening match of the day against Stella Maris College, the girls started slow with a couple of costly ball handling errors, which were further compounded by an extremely wet ball from early morning dew covering the playing fields.  These errors saw Stella Maris score an early try to open the scoring and a wakeup call for our girls.  St Clare’s tightened up their defence and improved their ball handling, which saw them hit straight back with two quick tries of their own to snatch the lead 2-1.  St Clare’s let in a late try to tie the game 2-2 going into the final minutes of the match.  St Clare’s put in multiple attacking raids on the Stella Maris try line, however where unable to get through the desperate defensive efforts of the Stella Maris girls, with the match ending in a 2-2 draw.

St Clare’s played Murrumbidgee Regional High School in their second round encounter.  Our girls opened the scoring off the back of some strong driving efforts to dominate field position and set up a well-structured team try.  This would be the only score for the match, with both teams trading strong attacking sets with impenetrable wall like defence, with our girls coming away with a well-deserved 1-0 victory.

Round three saw St Clare’s come up against a hard running and extremely quick St Joseph’s College Lochinvar.  In what was a see-sawing encounter, which saw each team exchange tries throughout the entire match, both teams were unable to be separated at fulltime, with a 3-3 draw the end result.  St Clare’s twice came from behind to level the scores, before having their own opportunities to seal the game in the dying minutes, but unfortunately falling agonisingly short on each occasion.

Our girls came up against a fast starting James Sheahan Catholic High School in their round four match, who jumped out to a 2-0 lead.  However, our girls didn’t push the panic button and regrouped extremely well to fight their way back with strong defensive efforts and field position to level the score at 2-2 halfway through the match.  Fatigue started to set in towards the back end of the game for both teams, which saw defensive lapses and handling errors, which led to Sheahan leading 4-3 late in the game.  Our girls didn’t give up and scored a match equalising try as the siren sounded for fulltime with a diving effort in the corner to level the score and draw the match 4-4.

St Clare’s fifth and final group match of the day was against the undefeated and competition heavy weights, Hunter Sports High School.  Our girls started strong and shocked Hunter Sports by opening the scoring with a well-crafted team try.  Hunter Sports hit back through some enterprising attacking play of their own, which saw them run in two tries to take the lead 2-1.   St Clare’s held their own, with some outstanding try line defensive efforts to keep Hunter Sports attacking sets at bay and were deservedly rewarded with a late try of their own to seal a 2-2 draw.

Having finished the group stage second behind Hunter Sports High, St Clare’s sealed their spot in the semi-finals, where they came up against Gilroy Catholic College who finished top of their group in the other pool.  St Clare’s dominated field position and ball possession in the opening ten minutes of the match and as such were rewarded with two tries to deservedly lead 2-0.  Gilroy persevered with multiple length of the field attacking sets, which led to them fighting their way back into the match with back to back tries in the final five minutes of the match.  In what was a chaotic final minute of the match, which saw both teams with golden opportunities to seal the win and book a grand final birth, the match ended in a 2-2 draw.  To decide the winner, a ‘drop off’ occurred in extra time where-by one player from each team would leave the field after every minute if neither team had scored.  In what was an extremely dramatic, stressful and exciting period of extra time, which saw both teams reduced to three players each who traded end to end sets, Gilroy clinched the winning try with a length of the field diving effort in the corner.

Our St Clare’s girls should be extremely proud of their outstanding efforts, they not only represented the school amazingly but their positive attitude, team work and outstanding sportsmanship across the entire day was a credit to them and deserving of the girls finishing as one of the top four teams in the entire state, well done and congratulations girls.

Lastly, a big thank you to Mrs Parvin, Dru our bus driver along with Sienna Agnew and Charli Morrissey who travelled with the team to referee and support our team on the day, without their outstanding and tireless efforts events such as this would not be possible.

Matthew Collier
Year 7/8 All Schools Touch Coordinator

2022 Competitors Only Athletics Carnival 

The Athletics Carnival was held on Tuesday, 19 July.  This year it was open for competitors only.  Well done to all the students who participated in events on the day.  The Diocesan Carnival will be held on Wednesday, 17 August and 32 students have been selected to participate in the event. 

Congratulations to the following students:

Lucca Boyling
Jake Byma
Matthew Clements
Miley Cox
Lachlan Cutajar
Kai De Bono
Ashton Dennis
Claire Downie
Gemma Eady-Muxlow
Bailey Furze
Alice Godfrey
Addison Hogan
Annabelle Johnson
Dylan Kinkade
Ava Lohse
Alondra Martinez-Leeson
Jocelin Martinez-Leeson
Sione Masterantonio
Jade Parvin
Mason Polidano
Grace Randall
Lily Richardson
Rufus Rowe
Amy Rowell
Sophie Scislo
Samuel Stephens
Nash Syron
Cade Van Ewyk-Campbell
Brock Wells
Zach White
Declan White
Cooper Yates

Luke Rowe
Sports Coordinator