Northern Territory, Victoria bag 5th and 7th spots in U-21 Australian National Hockey Championship
The men’s hockey teams of Northern Territory (NT) and Victoria overpowered Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and Tasmania respectively by 3-1 and 4-2 to secure the 5th and 7th places in the play-off games of the U-21 Australian National
Hockey Championship, which is being held at the Perth Hockey Stadium, on July 17.
In the 5th and 6th places play-off game, the NT came back and notched three goals against the two of their competitors.
In the very early minutes, the ACT's players, Arin Doig and Jack Wallace, made incursions inside the defensive circle of NT, but all in vain. However, it was NT that drew the first blood in the 9th minute, when Joel Latham notched the first goal
of the day from the field effort.
Tim Boteler of NT further expanded the lead in the 16th minute of the match, when he received a pass from the mid-field position and sent it into the ACT's goal. In a matter of four minutes, the NT received a short-corner and tested Jeremy Hayward
who did not miss the chance. It was the third goal that made the return of ACT difficult into the game.
In the later time, the ACT attack came alive, but it could only score a single goal. Jack Wallace scored off the solitary short-corner and reduced the lead down to two goals, 3-1. It was a complete action from the two sides not only in the first half, but
the two rounds. Neither ACT nor NT could make an addition in the second half and the latter won the game by 3-1.
The game played for the 7th and 8th places was also a one-sided contest, where Victoria scored four goals against the two of their rivals.
In the opening half of play, both the Victoria and Tasmania commenced the game in quite an identical way. After missing many chances, Jeremy Edwards of Tasmanian drew the first blood from the field effort in the 21st minute of the match and boosted
the courage of the other players.
However, the Victorians were not ready to give up and made a return into the game with first goal of the day in the 25th minute in the hands of Jeremy Edwards. After the two minutes, Tim Cross marked another goal and established lead for Victoria,
2-1.
In the second half, both the teams were playing in similar way, but same two goals from Victoria and one from Tasmania was scored in the period.
Brian Walton and Andrew Philpott scored one goal each for Victoria respectively, in the 51st and 70th minutes to seal the victory. From the other side, Edwards added only a single goal from the field and lost the game at 4-2.
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