Division 1 men

Strikers had a second chance to win through to the Lower South East Hockey Association grand final this week, but first had to face West with Tigers awaiting the victors.

Strikers played the more attractive brand of free-flowing hockey early on and were rewarded with Jordan Millhouse scoring their first goal.

Strikers had star playmaker Dean McCarthy back and it was showing, as their structure and team cohesion was far superior with McCarthy directing traffic.

Millhouse scored the second goal in the second quarter, getting the final touch on the end of some excellent attacking play by Gus Langsmith just before half time.

There were some great match ups showing through in the second half, with Dale Tucker and Chris Callis well matched for pace, but Langsmith was a pest in defence denying West the scoring chances they were creating.

There were many excellent saves by young goalie Jordan Fabian and Callum Murray in back line for Strikers, but West was clearly on the improve with Patrick O’Hehir a strong contributor.

Finally Angus Aitken got one through, with Fabian able to get a glove to it but the rebounding bounce catching him out and finding the back of the net.

But Strikers hit back when Millhouse scored again to create a 3-1 lead with 15 minutes to go, but West quickly returned fire with Aitken bringing it back to a one-goal game.

Strikers earned a short corner after some good attack, but to West’s relief the drag flick went wide.

With a grand final berth within touching distance for Strikers, West scored the equaliser with 20 seconds on the clock, sending the crowd into raptures and forcing overtime.

Even though five minutes of golden goal were played each way, no score arrived, so the crowd were treated to a penalty shootout.

Through the first five shooters the score was still locked, so a golden goal shoot out ensued, with both goalies making multiple saves when their sides backs were against the wall.

Brayden Burston scored twice for West and young Will Cameron was as cool as a cucumber scoring his shot.

With David Vine redeeming his earlier miss with a clutch goal it came down to Millhouse, who had been brilliant all day, but West was able to pull out a comeback for the ages when Hutchesson made the save to send West through in an epic battle.

Division 1 women

It was an enthralling battle in the Division 1 women as Redbacks and Tigers looked to win their way through to meet West in the grand final next weekend.

Redbacks drew first blood with a short corner conversion for the first goal, but Tigers were not rattled and equalised soon after, with a short corner variation of their own, in which Tish Adams got the final touch from the post.

Tigers had strong crowd support and enjoyed a period of dominance for a time, capitalising after a short corner bullet from Kaitlyn Nisbet smoked all the defenders to give build a 2-1 half time lead.

With the physicality of the game cranking up and a number of cards handed out, Redbacks took the wind out of Tigers sails with a back stick goal to Steph Wighton to even it up.

This breakthrough was quickly followed by a goal to Jade Delaney off a short corner to retake the lead.

The game still had more twists and turns to come however, with Billie Jones fighting hard up forward and rewarding her side’s endeavor with a scrapped goal face goal to bring the score to 3-3 with a quarter to play.

Redbacks ended up down two players as the cards continued to be dished out, but credit to the enormous work rate of centre-half Anna Mitchell and fullback Isabel De Tomasi who were able to hold Tigers at bay.

Olivia Turner and Brooke Marcus were brilliant through the midfield for Tigers but just could not breakthrough the final line of defence for Redbacks, with goalkeeper Rachel Curtis making some desperate saves.

The match winning goal to Redbacks finally came from a deflection into Steph Wighton to complete her hat-trick and break Tigers hearts, completing a highly entertaining 4-3 victory.