Northwood played Clifton in the U15 Top Ten Final at the Clifton Aquatic Centre on Sunday 14 October 2012. In the pool games Northwood beat Glenwood 13 -2, Westville 7 – 4, Michaelhouse 5-2, DHS 3-1 and in the semi final beat Kearsney 7-4.
The final between Northwood and Clifton was a very tense affair with Northwood taking the lead in the 1st chukka with a 5 metre penalty, scored by Clayton Holland. In the 2nd chukka, Clifton drew level with a very well worked goal. The game continued to flow up and down with possession changing numerous times and Northwood were stopped from scoring by an outstanding save by the Clifton goal keeper. With 2 minutes remaining the Clifton coach called a time-out to motivate for the winning goal. With great defence by Northwood, Brandon Mottram, with a great steel, put Northwood back on attack and after working the pool ball around, Justin Snyman had a shot at goal which was partly saved by the Clifton goalkeeper and the ball floated behind the goal line. This lead to a very tense last minute but with some outstanding defence by Northwood they managed to steal the ball again and held onto possession to end the game victoriously breaking Clifton’s 3 year clean sweep dominance.
