REPORTS were received from two of the hockey matches played on Saturday, but it was two surprising results that made the news.
St Charles 3 Kearsney 1
This is the first time that St Charles have beaten Kearsney, and for the visitors it was a disappointing display after they had shown so much promise early in the season. Injuries and illness did affect Kearsney, but it is the result on the day that goes into the record books.
Although Kearsney dominated territorially they could not finish off, partly due to some good harassing defence by the home side. St Charles was quicker over the five yards to win the crucial 50/50 balls.
St Charles was able to defend the first two penalty corners awarded to Kearsney and then Kearsney defended the first penalty corner awarded to St Charles. For the last five minutes of the half Kearsney again dominated. The Saints’ goalie was brought into action in the 28th minute when he saved a shot that was then cleared by the defence. The score remained 0-0 at half time.
The first goal came, when in the 14th minute, when a pass by Wiaan Luttig found Uli Fischer, just outside the circle with just the Kearsney goalie between him and the goalmouth. He was able to push the ball past the advancing goalie and into the vacant goal. This seemed to spur St Charles on and they scored a second soon after. Warwick Dukes beat the defence and passed the ball to Fischer who was able to bury it in the back of the goal, for St Charles to take a 2-0 lead.
Kearsney came back well earning two penalty corners, both defended by the home side. Another penalty corner in the 25th minute yielded the desired result for Kearsney when Michael Shadwell was able beat one defender and blast the ball past the goalie in the bottom right of the goal. With time running out, Kearsney were looking to equalise, but St Chrles earned a penalty corner and from it Michael Day scored for St Charles to take a well-deserved 3-1 victory.
Michaelhouse 3 Hilton 0
After Hilton had won the first tight encounter 4-3, it was expected that it would again be closely contested. Michaelhouse, who had been more intent on disrupting Hilton in the first game, did not get distracted and played some good hockey to blow Hilton away. They let the ball do the talking and were far more focused than in the first game.
Three goals were scored, but the penalty-corner count of 10-1 to Michaelhouse showed the dominance they had in possession. This is not to say that Hilton had no chances and if they had scored from some early pressure, the final result may have been different.
The first goal came midway in the first half when a good build- up from the back found Tyrone Thomas at the top of the circle and he made no mistake blasting the ball into the goal. Scott Wadeson scored the second after Sean Donaldson had linked well to take the ball from the back up to the circle. This left the home side 2-0 up at the break.
Donaldson was able to score the third goal with about 15 minutes remaining. This came from another Michaelhouse penalty corner when a low drag-flick beat Aaron Abbema in the Hilton goal.
Hilton had few chances in the second half until they were awarded a penalty flick for a bad Michaelhouse tackle in the circle. Tim Lee made a good stop with his stick to prevent Hilton from scoring what would have been some consolation in their loss to the better side.
Glenwood 0 Westville 2
Unfortunately no report was received, but it was a surprise result as Glenwood has shown some good hockey of late. Westville, since the opening of their artificial surface early in the season, has arguably been the side to show the most improvement in the province.
