With the hockey season having a break for the junior competition, this weekend only featured senior matches. Our changeable weather made things difficult for the men’s teams playing on Sunday, but there were some great efforts and lots of hard work. With 6 weeks to go before the end of the home and away hockey season and the commencement of finals, our teams are working hard to get results.
Division 1 Women
Newtown Falcons vs Newtown Strikers 6-0
A hard fought game by both teams. Falcons began tentatively, but gained confidence with the full 11 players in the game. The first half saw Falcons create plenty of attack with Deb, Emma and Nicole showing great anticipation and intercepting forward moves from Strikers to send Falcons into attack again. Jenn W in goals for Strikers denied Falcons scoreboard success on many occasions, and solid defence from Kate, Sharon and Meg sent the ball out of the danger area for Strikers. Great running and movement by both teams in the midfield saw the ball go from end to end with Amanda, Georgie and Jacquie showing pace and skill to move the ball into the attacking area for Strikers.
With a score of 2-0 at half time, the game was evenly poised. The second half saw Falcons lift, with great running to space by Bec C and Tiahna which moved the ball quickly into attack, and with team mates in good position, Falcons took advantage of the play to score 4 goals. Goal scorers were Nicole, Bec C, Jess W 2, and Phoebe 2. Best Players this week were Emma P, Nicole and Tiahna.
Division 1 Men
Newtown Strikers vs Newtown Falcons 5-3
Goal Scorers: Adham H 2, Hamish Boyd 1, Carl 1, Lachlan Baensch 1
With both teams starting the game with 9 players it was always going to be interesting to see how the game would be played and how fatigue levels would affect the second half. Right from the start of the game both teams came out fast with many end to end plays but minimal scoring in the first half due to solid defensive efforts from both teams. Going into half time the Falcons were up 2 goals to Strikers 1.
As this wasn’t a convincing lead, we were expecting the Falcons to lift their game in the second half and they didn’t disappoint, through increased use of one touch passing and overlapping there were a number of goal opportunities but through the Strikers ability to quickly release the ball out of our defensive half we were able to score 4 consecutive goals which suddenly put the Falcons on the back foot where they were only able to pull back 1 goal in the final minutes of the game.
All up it was a fantastic team effort starting with Simon in goals making a number of difficult saves; Carl, Andrew and Jimmy blocking out attacks while creating the fast releases previously mentioned allowing Adham, Hamish, Lochie and David J to cause havoc through the mid field and open the second half goal frenzy.
The Strikers have been on a bit of a high over the past few weeks, our confidence is high and through constant efforts that have either been rewarded with exciting games or a win, today’s result will give us a chance at moving up to 4th place, which was one of our goals for the season and something that we will look to hold onto over the coming weeks.
Division 2 Women
Newtown Rebels – Bye
Division 2 Men
Newtown Spirit vs Geelong 1-2
A great effort by Newtown Spirit with plenty of attack but amazing goalkeeping from Geelong kept the score down.
