The Northwood 1st hockey team claimed a hard fought 4 – 1 victory against Jeppe over the weekend.
The game was a fiercely contested affair where both teams produced some great hockey. Northwood started the match slowly and it was Jeppe who earned the first penalty corner of the match. Northwood keeper Kyle Pillay pulled off an outstanding diving stick save from a Jeppe drag flick.
This spurred the Northwood team into action and they created their first penalty corner opportunity of the match. After a well worked variation Steve McManus was quick to latch onto a rebound to give Northwood a 1 – 0 lead. The team continued to play some fantastic hockey and created numerous scoring chances but some brilliant goal keeping from the Jeppe keeper and some poor finishing saw the score remain the same at half time.
The second half saw both teams produce some fine patches of hockey but it was Northwood who scored the second goal of the game when the brilliant Matthew de Sousa was fouled in the circle forcing a penalty stroke. Dale van der Merwe continued his scoring ways when he scored from the spot.
The second goal saw Jeppe raise their tempo and they had a good period of dominance where they created a number of penalty corner and scoring opportunities. They finally scored through a well worked penalty corner variation.
Once again this resulted in a quick response from the Northwood team and they managed convert another penalty corner when McManus scored his second rebound of the game taking the score to 3 – 1.
Jeppe threw everything at getting a result out of the game and left themselves open to the counter attack and Northwood managed to earn a penalty corner in the last minute of the game. After a number of re-awards they finally scored their fourth goal when Greg Wright tapped home a rebound to give Northwood a 4 – 1 victory.
The match was a hard fought affair with both teams playing some high quality hockey. The Jeppe team, coached by former South African captain Ryan Ravenscroft, were well drilled and played an attractive brand of hockey.
This result means that Northwood continues its fantastic start to the season making it 10 wins from as many matches.
Report by -Darryn Gallagher: Coach
