Western Australia defeat Northern Territory by 5-1 in Australian Hockey League
In a one-sided contest, Sam Pike's scored three goals and had an assist to carry Western Australia to a commanding 5-1 win over Northern Territory in the Australian Hockey League (AHL) played at the Marrara Hockey Stadium, in Darwin, on June 12.
The players from Western Australia displayed excellent performance in all sections. The hat-trick of Sam Pike added much weight to make the victory more commanding in favour of Western Australia. However, one could not have predicted a wide margin
victory after the end of first half of play.
As the game-opening whistle sounded, the players from Western Australia started attacking the Northern Territory side in search of a goal. They were not only carrying out back-to-back attacks, but also showed resilient defence into the game. The opening
period was filled with a large number of strikes and counter-strikes. The defending players from each team showed brilliant work in the early minutes.
After missing plenty of chances in the opening minutes of the first half, Sam Pike notched the first goal of the game in the 18th minute and opened the scoring for his team. Western Australia earned a short-corner that was converted
by Pike through a splendid drag-flicking shot.
In the 29th minute of the game, Trent Mitton managed to take the ball at the top of the circle and executed a well-organised shot that made its way into the Northern Territory's goal.
On the other side, the players from Northern Territory were struggling to get their first goal of the game. Finally, in the last minute of the first half, Travis Carroll managed to get into the defensive circle of Western Australia's D-Line and struck
a low-flying shot to reduce the lead down to a single goal. The first half of play concluded with Western Australia hanging on to a solitary goal edge, 2-1.
Both the teams commenced the second half action quite professionally, but it was Western Australia that dominated the field throughout the second half. They were all over in the second period and notched three more goals while holding opponent goal-less
throughout the 35 minutes of the second half.
Pike scored a couple of goals in the 47th and 49th minute of the game respectively, while his team-mate, Fergus Kavanagh, added a goal from the field in the 65th minute of the game to seal the victory
by 5-1.
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