The girls from Santa Barbara “C” narrowly missed out on direct promotion. They finished third in First E1, three points behind Los Matreros – they became champions and promoted to the division, coincidentally in Gonnet, beating the Tricolor team 1 to 0 – and one from the Racing Club in the framework of the regular stage during the Metropolitan Championship of that category.
Of course, they had the possibility of progressing through DE Repechage against Atlético Chascomús, which would have finished twelfth in the top category. In fact, I didn’t know how the Santa Barbara “C” team would react to the fact that promotion had eluded them, since they were also suffering from the sporting disadvantage of being the team in the lowest division.
The team maintained its focus and played the playoffs with heart and soul. They only felt a little uneasy in the second leg in Chascomus, when the local team took a 3-1 lead, thus achieving promotion, with Santa ‘C’ winning the first leg 2-0. They knew how to absorb the strike and the match ended in a 4-4 draw.
At the end of the match, the Chascomos were painted green, black and white with Santa Barbara promoted to C, a well-deserved achievement because they strived for it all year, putting in as much effort as the whole group when training, often in two periods, knowing that there were a large number of players working and studying. Of course, this was not the only joy, as the tricolor team also won the Intermedia Championship for the second time in a row.
Santa Bárbara “C” was the only La Plata women’s team to achieve promotion in the current season of the Amateur Hockey Association Championship in Buenos Aires, considering that the gentlemen of the Junit Club will play again next year in the senior men’s category after becoming unbeaten champions of the Primera Division B.
Manuel Dominguez (coach with Gregorio Pérez Pesado as assistant), Marina Pulido Herrera (team captain and scorer), Juana Perrone (sub-captain) in an interview at EL DIA, Santa Barbara’s “C” category promotion to Primera D hockey.