Club News/match reports
 
June 2009
There aren’t many 11th grade tournaments in Auckland this year. So when Papakura City FC put out an invitation for their 11th grade 7 a-side tournament the slots filled so fast that Papakura had to increase the 16 team format  to 28 teams to accommodate the demand.  Hopefully Onehunga Soccer & Sports  will manage to find space and time for a 11th grade tournament later this year!
 
The 28 teams included 1 or in some cases 2 or 3 teams from the following clubs: Albany, Bay Olympic, Birkenhead, Bucklands Beach, Drury, East Coast Bays, Eastern Suburbs, Fencibles, Hamilton, Manurewa, Papakura, Pukekohe, Three Kings, Western Springs, Waiuku, and of course Onehunga.
 
Onehunga Soccer 11th Grade Premiers won all their pool rounds as follows:
1 : 0 vs. Three Kings Clarke (Goals: Sarpreet)
4 : 1  vs. Birkenhead Broncos (Goals: Aleks, Ben 3)
3 : 0  vs. Papakura City (Goals: Ben, Kris, Aleks)
the boys did very well in the pool rounds without the help of 3 team members absent in the morning trying out for 12th grade AFF reps.
 
Papakura tournament managers rated the 28 teams on points, goal difference, and corners won to calculate the final 8 teams for the championship, 8 teams for the plate, and 8 Teams for the consolation play offs.
Onehunga seeded 2nd  due to Three Kings Sauvarin gaining a slight goal difference advantage.
 
Championship Quarter Finals:
Onehunga 4 : 0 vs. Birkenhead United  (Goals Thomas, Sam, Sarpreet, Aleks)
Three Kings Sauvarin 3 : 0 vs. Three Kings Clarke
Fencible Rams 2 : 0 vs. Three Kings Robson
Papakura United 2 : 1 vs. Hamilton North Eagles
 
Championship Semi Finals:
Onehunga 2 : 0 vs. Fencible Rams  (Goals Thomas, Ben)
Papakura United 1 : 0 vs. Three Kings Sauvarin
 
ONEHUNGA WIN THE Championship Final vs. Papakura United          1 NIL !!!  (HT 0:0  Goal Ben Poulter – pen.)
Credit to Papakura who were determined to upset the day for Onehunga.
They played very well making finishing difficult for the Onehunga forwards, and with their own big forwards forcing the Onehunga defence to play their very best keeping it nil all through the first half.
After a good half time pep talk from the Onehunga coach the boys returned to the pitch and really applied the pressure with great defence, excellent passing and skilful footwork in the midfield and forwards.  It all became too much for the opposition and with 3 minutes remaining the referee pointed to the spot in response to a Papakura hand ball. A shell-shocked Papakura team could only watch in dismay as Ben Poulter slammed the ball past the goalie. The boys kept possession for the next 2 minutes and then deservedly celebrated another great 2009 tournament win.
 
Onehunga team: Ryan Napper, Kris Yovich, Ben Poulter, Aleks Dabek, Niwa Blair, Sarpreet Singh, Thomas McCloy, Harry Merz, William Gillingham, Sam Smith.
Tournament Coaches: Mark Yovich and Craig Gillingham
Manager: Troy Merz
Special thanks to all the team parents and family members in getting together to set up the tent, provide food, drinks, and comforts for the team and themselves to create a fantastic day for all.
Thanks to Papakura City FC for putting on a well organised great tournament.
 
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Hamilton 11th Grade tournament 5th april 2009
 
16 teams contested the “2009 11th Grade Hamilton North Pre-Season Tournament 5-April-2009”
including the best teams from Waikato, Bay of Plenty, South Auckland, and the North Shore.
Onehunga Soccer 11th grade Premier team won all pool rounds and finals as follows:
vs. Otumoetai FC  3 nil  (Thomas , Sarpreet 2)
vs. Cambridge FC  2 nil  (Ben 2)
vs. St Peters Matamata 3 nil (Sarpreet, Ben FK, Liam)
 
Quarter Final  vs. Papakura FC, quite a physical battle from Papakura  1 nil (Ben)
Semi Final vs. Mt Maunganui  2 nil  (Thomas, Sarpreet)
 
Onehunga Won Championship Final vs. Forest Hill  1 nil 
A very tense and well played game with plenty of skill and good quality football preformed by both teams. FH nearly went ahead a few times hitting the wood work twice and once just over the bar, although well covered by Onehunga Goalie of the day Ryan Napper keeping a clean sheet.  Onehunga had numerous attempts on goal but were finding trouble with the small size of the goal and the dexterous FH goalie. In the end it was a combination of absolute solid defence: Harry Merz and William Gillingham, Outstanding mid fielders: Sam Smith, Kris Yovich, Niwa Blair. And always attacking forwards: Thomas McCloy, Sarpreet Singh, Ben Poulter, Aleks Dabek, and guest player Liam Jordan to prevail and win this final on a hot Waikato day.
Troy.
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9/10th Grade girls Papakura tournament May 2009
playing in their first tournament as a group.
 
In our first game of pool play we played a team from East Coast Bays
and won 2- 1.
Our second game was against Three Kings and again we won  2-0. The  fourth team in our pool was from Whakatane, who evenyually won the  tournament, were quite a bit older and bigger than our girls and beat us 2-0.
However as we picked up 6 points in the pool play it mean't we
finished an amazing fourth place out of 13 teams and had to play the
second place team, from Whakatane, in the competition semi final. It
was a great game in very windy conditions but we eventually succumbed  2-1, with Katherine Clark scoring a wonderful goal to keep us in it right to the final whistle.
We then came up against a Bay Olympic team that lost the other semi  final for a battle for 4th place overall.The Bay Olympic team are
quite an experienced team and after 4 hard battles before our girls "ran out of legs" and finished fourth.
I was so proud of our girls who played magnificently for their first
ever tournament and to achieve 4th position overall out of thirteen
teams was quite stunning and bades well for future tournaments.
 
The girls looked magnificent in their Onehunga Sports jackets and
represented the Club with unbelievable distinction.-Bruce