Ben Peterson's hat-trick put Scotland into the semi-final of Euro Hockey U-18 Championship II
The Scottish junior boys defeated the Ukrainian outfits by 5-1 in their final group match of the Euro Hockey U-18 Championship II, being played in Cernusco, Italy. With this victory, Scotland along with Austria from their pool have qualified for the
semi-finals which is going to be played on July 15.
Despite the fact of having a number of players injured and suspended, Scotland showed a much improved performance as compared to their previous match against Austria in which they were outclassed by the opponents. However, the Scottish juniors played
clinically throughout the match; scoring two goals in the first half while three in the second half, whereas Ukraine could score only one goal.
The first half started a little bit slow as both teams came across some goal-scoring opportunities, but remained goal-less, but it was Ukraine which took the early lead in the 20th minute, when Koshelenko scored the opening
goal. However, Scotland made the equaliser in the 27th minute when Peterson scored the first goal of his hat-trick. Two minutes later, Scotland got a chance in shape of penalty-corner, but that was missed while a minute before the interval
Peterson put his team ahead of Ukraine, once again through a beautiful field goal. The score was 2-1 to Scotland at the interval.
The second half started in a full flow by the Scottish junior boys as they created a number of scoring chances, but those remained mere chances and could not be converted into goals. The Scottish boys also missed chances on penalty corners and same
was the case with Ukraine. However, in the 59th minute, Scotland succeeded in increasing its lead, when Peterson completed his hat-trick and after that the remaining ten minutes were full of thrilling action. Minutes after Peterson’s
hat-trick, Scotland scored their fourth goal, but this time the scorer was Hastings who made a wonderful strike from the right side of the penalty area. The Scottish junior boys continued with the same pace and their final strike was made by McIntyre from
the left side of the scoring area moments before the close of the play. The match concluded at 5-1 to Scotland.
Meanwhile, the Scottish U-18 girls were defeated by their Irish counter-parts by 3-1 in the Euro Hockey Youth U-18 Championship which is in progress in Utrecht, Netherlands.
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