Catholic High School began their National Inter-School Floorball Championships 2009 campaign with a win over their opponents today. The experience in the SFL Division 4 certainly prepared the players well for the match and the victory was sweet, especially after those numerous defeats. However, there were quite a number of mistakes that were made in this game which needed to be addressed. Nevertheless, it was a good start to the competition.

National Inter-School Floorball Championships 2009 (‘B’ Division)
Si Ling Secondary School vs Catholic High School
ITE Tampines
1-3 (0-1, 1-2, 0-0)

The match began at 4pm on the court of ITE Tampines. The game plan was to play as per normal and make our passing count. We took our chances well, when a reset in play saw Min Hao with the ball just beyond the half court. He took the shot and with a lucky deflection, deceived the goalkeeper and went into the bottom corner of the goal. Our first goal of the competition was claimed by Min Hao!

Si Ling pressed on and equalized from a defensive lapse, only for the referee to rule the goal out as he spotted an infringement by the player who trespassed into the goal box. Our lead was safe for the moment, but only just.

The score was to remain until the end of the first period. Si Ling restarted the game and began to gain more possession. We were put under serious pressure for a while, but a wonderful piece of play saw us extending the lead by another goal. A rehearsed board pass from Min Hao to Dickson caught the opponents unaware, and Crenshawn, who was unmarked in front of the goal-post, needed no further invitation to slam resulting cross beyond the goalkeeper. This was a classic example of a successful play-up routine, practiced so often in training.

Si Ling, to their credit, never gave up and as one of their players ran at our defenders, he executed a diagonal pass to a free forward at the far post who made no mistake to beat Han Wei to narrow the scoreline to 1-2. A few minutes later, they had a free hit 5 metres away and the forward scored with a direct shot into the top corner. The referee came to our rescue again by ruling the goal out because the player had dragged the ball prior to shooting and that was illegal.

Having been denied twice, the players from Si Ling began to show their frustrations with some physical play and both teams had players serving the 2-minute penalty at various points during the game.

It was during one such power play, when we were awarded a free hit in the opponent’s half. Min Hao stepped up to take the shot, but he was ordered to retake the free hit as the ball was not placed properly. The opposing wall relaxed for a moment and was unable to get back into position as play was allowed to resume. Min Hao took advantage of the gap in the wall and slapped the ball straight into goal. The opponents were stunned as the goal was awarded.

As the players realized that they were on the verge of a victory, they began to feel nervous and committed several mistakes. There were a couple of chose shaves as Si Ling pressed on in search of that elusive goal, but our defence managed to hold them out comfortably in the final few minutes to secure the win.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

It was a great result, considering the fact that we were pitted against one of the stronger teams in our group for the first match. However, there are still several areas to work on, and they will be addressed on the training ground. This result puts us in good steed as we progress in the tournament and I hope we will continue to better ourselves in every game.

Good job boys!