We approach our final match with trepidation, knowing that our opponents today had beaten Si Ling Secondary School and reversed the results of their game against Northlight due to a registration mistake. It was a game which we must win in order to progress to the next round of the Nationals. Even a draw would be disastrous. Besides, even the opposing coach admitted that we deserved to go through. However, war was not fought on paper and there was still a game to be played.

With a thin squad on our hands, we faced off for the start of the match. Within a few minutes, the opposing goalkeeper was beaten by a shot from Ian and we were in the lead. Things looked to be going our way until Ping Yi equalised from a lucky tap in off a messy clearance. It got worse when a long free hit found a Ping Yi forward who slotted the ball into our goal to lead 1-2. Finally, another poor clearance found a Ping Yi defender who beat Han Wei from half court with a superb long shot, and we found ourselves looking at a 1-3 deficit at the end of the period.

National Inter-School Floorball Championships 2009 (‘B’ Division)
Catholic High School vs Ping Yi Secondary School
ITE Tampines
3-5 (1-3, 1-1, 1-1)

We kept plugging away in the second period, looking for that elusive goal but Ping Yi repelled all our attacks by putting their bodies in the way of our shots. Against the flow of the game, Ping Yi found their forward with another long ball who evaded Dion and tapped it in for their fourth goal. Without many players available, not much tactical changes could be made and Ping Yi found it easy to mark our forwards out of the game. Min Hao narrowed the gap with a long range shot but we still end up tailing by 2 goals at the break.

The third period was our final chance to get back into the game. However, a poor pass saw a Ping Yi forward intercept the ball and went one-on-one with Lander. Unfortunately, Lander could not do much as he was beaten at the far corner. We pressed on and Min Hao scored another similar goal again. The order now was to shoot on sight but Ping Yi frustrated us with their well timed blocks.

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The scoreline stood at 3-5 and the final whistle was blown. The chance to progress was in our hands but we blew the chance. No team can let in 5 goals and still expect to progress, and it is a defeat that began from our second match.

Hopefully, this experience will toughen up the players for next year and with the up and coming Secondary 2s, we will have a strong and full squad to compete with.

Till next season!