Sports News

OJC Phillip Island 

Elijah Andrew had the privilege to race in the support class to the World MotoGP Australian Round at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, in Victoria. This had 120,000+ race race fans at the track plus the millions of international broadcast viewers watching what the Australian premier national junior racing class can do out on this world renowned race track.  

Friday’s practice was declared a dry track to start with. Elijah ran wide on turn 6 and had to power it to get through the gravel trap but he managed to keep the bike upright and he rejoined the track. 
All was going good and he was improving lap times until a sudden downpour of rain. Elijah and 4 other riders crashed hard at different parts of the track as they were all on slick tyres  in extremely wet conditions. The session was red flagged. 
 
Qualifying was again declared a dry track and Elijah was sitting in 14th place, before dropping down several positions in the timing. His next two laps were hindered by slow riders, followed by yet another downpour which ended the qualifying session.  This resulted in him qualifying back in 17th, for all 3 race starts. 
 
Race 1 Elijah got a good start jumping 3 riders by turn one. He continued to pass riders using slip-steaming to great effect on the straights. 
After a couple of lead riders crashed out Elijah was up to 8th place and riding well. 
Unfortunately he made a rookie mistake and thought the race had finished a lap early, and he backed off. After a few riders passed him at full race speed he quickly realized the race was still going, finishing in 11th place. 
Elijah thoroughly enjoyed the first race, but was gutted with his mistake missing out on a top 10 finish. 

Saturday midday saw the OJC race 2. Track conditions were good. 
Elijah lined up on the grid after the warm up lap ready to start the race, when he accidentally bumped the gear lever with his leg and the bike went into neutral, causing him to get off the line in last place. 
Elijah quickly started to fight his way back into 14th place over the 7 laps.  Going over the finish line for the chequered flag he was slip streamed and lost two places finishing in 16th place. 
 
Later on Saturday afternoon saw their 3rd and final race for this round. 
Elijah got off to a decent start (with one of his trademark wheelies), and was in 18th place at sector one. As though he had something to prove from his previous mishaps, Elijah drew on all of his racing experience and recent coaching to fight his way up to 2nd place at one stage achieving the fastest race lap time to that point (finishing 3rd fastest for race 3).

A 3-way battle between 3rd, 4th and 5th place was on until the 3rd place rider Ryan Larkin lost control breaking into turn 4, and crashed into Elijah, and he then Cameron Rende, causing all 3 riders to crash out of the race. 
Elijah came off the worst for wear and was stretched off the circuit by track medics and taken to the MotoGP track Medical Centre. Following initial checks was transferred to Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital for further x-rays, scans and tests. After 18+ hours he was given the all clear and discharged, although battered and bruised. 
 
What a huge weekend full of highs and lows. The takeaway for Elijah is that has the outright pace and ability to fight his way to the front pack, the capability to race there with the best and hold is own, and is truly now a top 5 racer. 
He is looking forward to the final 2022 round at The Bend Motorsport Park in South Australia on November 25-27. 
Follow Elijah @ElijahAndrewRacing
Elijah Andrew #18 

Thursday Sport

Season 3 of Representative sport continues this Term 4. We wish our girls Basketball, Boys Cricket and girls and boys Oztag teams all the best as they compete in the final Diocesan Representative season for 2022.

PDSSSC Futsal Gala Day

After many gala days this year, the Futsal gala day was the final of the year. The girls competed on Tuesday 18th and the boys competed on Wednesday 19th October.

Thank you to Ms Kemal (junior girls coach), Mr Dunaeff (intermediate girls coach), Miss Breeze (junior boys coach) and Mr Cetinic (intermediate boys coach) for their time and effort preparing students for the gala day. Please enjoy these recounts from coaches about the day.

JUNIOR BOYS FUTSAL GALA DAY 

The PDSSSC Boys Futsal Gala Day was held on Wednesday 19th September at Penrith Regional Valley Sports Centre.

The Junior Boys Team started strong for the day with our first game against Penola Catholic College resulting in a 7-0 win. Our second game against St Luke’s Catholic College was a closer game with an end result of a 4-2 win. Our last game for our pool was against St John Paul II Catholic College where our boys fought hard in the second half to close the score of 5-1 to 6-5 by the end of the game. Overall, the boys finished 2nd for their pool and progressed forward by versing 3rd position in Pool A. Our first play-off game was against Santa Sophia Catholic College where we worked hard to score 2 goals within the second half. In the semi-finals, we played St Paul’s Catholic College where we were defeated 9-3. Overall, the boys finished 3rd which is a great achievement. I would like to thank the followings boys: Savior Yosia Edward, Elias Helloulie, Luka Dinjar, Mark Maragan, Ondre Farag, Deng Deng, John-Paul Abou Chaaya, Yabsera Tekeste and Nicholas Bova for their dedication and commitment throughout the day in playing good football. I would also like to thank Oli Bres for supporting the team during his breaks and consistently refereeing games throughout the day. 

Kayla Brogan
Leader of Learning Sport

JUNIOR GIRLS FUTSAL GALA DAY 

On the 18th of October the Junior Girls Futsal Team travelled to Penrith Regional Valley sports Centre to compete against six other Catholic schools. All games were 2 x 10 minute halves with a 1 minute half-time break. 

The players played strong for the entirety of the rounds and not once did I witness anything less than 110% effort. St Andrews College not only came first in the competition but were labelled undefeated in this year's Futsal GALA Day - 67% of our players scored at least one goal.

Summary of results: 

Game 1: 2 - 1

Game 2: 2 - 0

Game 3: BYE

Game 4: 2 - 1

Game 5: 5 - 0

Game 6: 3 - 0

Game 7: 3 - 1

Thank you to our attackers who demonstrated speed, advanced ball control, fancy dribbling tricks, and shooting accuracy; 

• Amelia Farag
• Kiara Bartley 
• Layla Sanchez
• Siana Sanchez

Thank you to our defenders who predicted play and acted accordingly, put the opponents under pressure, tackling with precision and in some cases shooting goals; 

• Mykaela Beattie
• Caitlin Sciberras
• Sofia Fragomeni
• Chelsea Quimpo

A special thanks to our talented Goalkeeper Aesha Rosas who played all games consecutively saving so many challenging shots with her phenomenal diving skills and quick reflexes. 

I would also like to thank our parents in the audience for supporting and encouraging the girls during these games. 

Thank you all for your great teamwork and sportsmanship. 

Mrs Shandel Kemal
Junior Girls Futsal Coach

Intermediate girls

The intermediate girls started the day off with a win against St Marks. The games after that were very competitive and quite close against Catherine McCauley and OLMC with the final result being separated by one goal. Overall the interns came 3rd overall and the girls should be proud of how they represented the college with pride and really gave it their all! 

Mr Dunaeff
Intermediate girls coach

What a successful way to end the Diocesan Gala day year.

Mrs Shandel Kemal - Futsal Coach