HUNTER Sports High School's girls and boys soccer sides finished second and third respectively in the finals of the Bill Turner football competitions played at Speers Point last week.
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The Hunter Sports High (HSH) girls lost 3-0 to regular competition heavyweights Westfield Sports High School in the final.
A day earlier, they had qualified for the final with a 3-0 win of their own over Cairns State High in the semi-finals.
In that match, the HSH girls came out early and blew the visiting Queensland school off the park.
Hunter Sports High players Jodie Allan, Paige Abberfield and Savannah White all netted goals within the first 30 minutes of the match.
While the girls were not able to claim the Bill Turner Trophy, coach Ash Wilson said they had achieved their collective goal.
"We always had that goal at the start of the season to be in that final-four race to give ourselves the best opportunity to be in the final two," she said. "They challenged well in the final and were just a little bit unlucky in some areas."
Wilson said the girls should be proud of their efforts against Westfield given the school is aligned to Football Federation Australia's centre of excellence.
"It's always a good competition against them to see where we are, and benchmark ourselves against a squad like that," she said.
"The fact they were second out of 450 schools is a massive achievement. It was a close game for most of it and the girls can hold their head up high."
Coach of the HSH boys side, Scott McCarter, said his side finished the competition on a high note, defeating Westfield Sports High 2-1 to claim third place.
Reegan Clark scored in the 13th minute, before Westfield Sports High's Jason Cakovski levelled in the 59th. But only a minute after the equaliser, Seth Hedley put the home side in front and that's where the scores stayed for the remaining 30 minutes of play.
In the semi-final, the HSH boys lost 4-0 to eventual Bill Turner Cup winners Ipswich Grammar School.
McCarter said Ipswich proved to be a classy side and were too good in testing conditions on the day.
"The conditions of the first half with the wind didn't help us get out of trouble and probably blew the scoreline out a little bit," he said. "We responded really positively the next day against another good team so we were really happy with the boys."
GROM SURFING
Merewether's Ocean Lancaster put in a performance well beyond his years to claim the under-12 boys division in round three of the Surfer Groms Comps Series at Kiama at the weekend.
Lancaster won with a 15.24 two-wave heat total. Fellow Merewether surfer Felix Byrnes was fourth.
His fluent backhand was flawless over the course of the final as he posted the impressive score and left his fellow competitors needing two-wave combinations to take away his lead.
Byrnes has finished in front of Lancaster in round one of the series at Cronulla earlier this month.