Queensland edges out South Australia to secure 3rd position in U-21 National Hockey Championship
Peter Dillon marked a hat-trick and had an assist, as Queensland powered a 4-3 win over South Australia (SA) to earn the 3rd place in U-21 Australian National Men Hockey Championship. The cliff-hanging contest was held on July 16, 2011 at the
Perth Hockey Stadium, Australia.
It was a surprising performance from SA, which showed impressive offence in the recent fixtures and secured a place in the play-off round for 3rd, 4th spots. But they played the bronze-medal competition quite brilliantly and gave a
tough time to Queensland. They displayed outstanding attacking in the opening round and established their dominance from the very early minutes.
After the exchange of some attacks, both the teams started a very cautious style of play. However, it was SA that drew the first blood in the 8th minute of the match. The SA received a short-corner and tested Cameron Joyce. He was stunning with
drag-flicks and sent a scooping shot to the roof the net. It was a goal that put Queensland under intense pressure and they adopted more aggressive strategies.
In the counter-attacks, the Queensland team received many short-corners, but to no use. SA denied all the offences to hold back their lead with them. The results changed, when Peter Dillon scored the first goal of the day in the 22nd minute through
a reverse-shot and tied the knots at one-all.
However, the players from South Africa were not happy with the tie-up and regained the lead through field effort in the hands of Todd Kitto. He managed the tie-breaker through a wonderful passing and put SA ahead in the way to success. Though the Queensland
players made some efforts in the remaining minutes, they failed to make an addition and trailed by a solitary goal at the halftime, 2-1.
The action in the second half resumed with Queensland adopting different strategies and carried out back-to-back attacks against South Australia. In a very short-span of time, the Queensland obtained three goals and took the game into their favour.
With ten minutes into the second half, Peter Dillon managed to get the ball inside the defensive circle of SA and unleashed a powerful shot from a very close range. In a matter of five minutes, Daniel Beale converted a short-corner and established their
first lead of the game. In the 52nd minute, Dillon scored off another penalty-corner and stretched the lead up to two goals, 4-2. However, the SA did not lose the hope and converted a penalty-corner in the hands of Cameron Joyce in the 60th
minute.
However, it was the last offence from the both sides and Queensland not only won the game, but secured the 3rd position in the National Championship.
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