After the narrow win on Monday, we were matched up against Greendale Secondary School. We had watched them play their previous match and were quietly confident of getting a good result, so long as the team do not commit the same defensive mistakes. This game today will prove to be a tight one, where the winner will be the team who manages to hold a tight defence. The lead up to the match was good, with players preparing themselves mentally for the game and looking sharp during the warm up.

The first period started with both teams having equal possession of the ball. But when a long shot was deflected into the air, Ian used his body to good effect by shielding the bouncing ball from the defender and tapped the ball towards the goal. The goalkeeper was surprised by the shot and it went past him. Greendale pressured hard and earned a free hit near the board on the halfway line in the 8th minute. Their player took a shot and the ball eluded everyone. Han Wei got a leg to it but unfortunately could only deflect it into goal. With 3 minutes left, an interception by a Greendale defender released their forward, who went on a mazy run past two of our defenders to put the ball beyond a diving Han Wei to take the lead at 2-1. Towards the end of the period, a clearance by Min Hao found Ian, who made an accurate pass to Crenshawn on the right. Needing no further invitation, he shot into the top left corner of the goal for the equalizer.

National Inter-School Floorball Championships 2009 (‘B’ Division)
Greendale Secondary School vs Catholic High School
ITE Tampines
5-4 (2-2, 2-1, 1-1)

Shortly after the second period began, Greendale scored from another defensive error and we found ourselves chasing the game again. However, a confusion in their line change gave us the advantage of a power play as a Greendale player was penalized for 2 minutes. We held the ball well and finally found a breakthrough when Ian managed to thread the ball past the defender and goalkeeper for Crenshawn to slot it into goal. Nevertheless, Greendale took their chances well and their forward scored another goal via a deflection from a long shot. Lander could not do anything about the goal as he was let down by his defenders once again.

We were left to reorganize at the interval for the final period, with a strong emphasis on man-to-man marking. Our forwards will definitely create some chances but we must shore up our leaky defence if we were to win this game.

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We kept up the pressure as the third period began and 5 minutes later, were awarded another power play. Incidentally, the entire team went to the bench to receive instructions from the coach and did not return to the court even after the umpires blew for our free hit. Min Hao laid off the ball to Ian, and with only the goalkeeper to beat, he sent the ball high and wide. We continued to keep possession of the ball and a good foray down the right by Wee Kiat saw him received the return pass from Crenshawn. As the defender moved out of position, Wee Kiat passed back to Crenshawn who scored into the top left corner of the goal to level the scores.

It was not to be our victory when a lapse in concentration allowed their unmarked tall forward to slot in the winning goal with 4 minutes remaining. Min Hao was given a 2 minute penalty for rough play and that reduced our chances even more and Greendale eventually took all 3 points in this tightly contested game.

Our defence was not able to keep out the goals for two games in a row and it will definitely be an area that we have to work on before the deciding game between Ping Yi Secondary School and ourselves.