OVER the past month St Pat’s have scored a glut of goals and taken the lead in the men’s Premier League Hockey competition and while they notched up another win on Saturday, they were made to work hard for their 5-2 victory over Souths.

Having scored 36 goals in the four games since they toppled Souths 6-0 in late June, there was little doubt St Pat’s went into the match at the Cooke Hockey Complex as the hot favourites.

When the Saints pushed out to a 2-0 lead in the first half it could be a long afternoon for Souths, but the two blues rallied and got back on level terms in the second period.

Souths got in behind the Saints defence and applied real attacking pressure. In turn Pat’s became frustrated, rushed passes and took poor options.

However, the Saints managed to settle and a pair of goals in quick succession from skipper Jaden Ekert and young talent Aiden Charters relived the pressure.

“They absolutely had us under pressure and we put ourselves under pressure,” Ekert said. “When you turn the ball over that much in defence it hurts. 

“But the boys dug deep, they had to dig deep. We needed a game where we had our backs against the wall to prove something. We’ve proved we can play hockey, but there is a difference in doing that and being able to get yourselves out of a hole and we did that today.”

It was Ekert who opened scoring after five minutes off what was the first of six Saints penalty corner plays, putting away the second attempt after Souths had blocked the initial strike.

Four minutes later it took a sharp diving save from Souths goalkeeper John Rudge to stop another Saints penalty corner play proving successful, Tobbie Muldoon firing in a powerful shot towards the left post.

Souths had their first chance shortly after when Mike Stanford was released by a Bryce Hitchcock overhead, but Pat’s goalkeeper Travis Cartwright was quick off his line and made a good block.

Cartwright made another quality save to deny Jono Baillie and Souths were left to rue those missed chances when an Ekert penalty corner drag flick gave the Saints a 2-1 lead.

However, Adam Campbell cleaned up a rebound to get Souths on the board and the two blues could have been on equal terms at half-time had Baillie been able to convert a one-on-one chance.

Souths started the second half the stronger of the two and were rewarded when Josh Sherwani scored after his side played on quickly from a free hit.

At 2-all both sides had their chances in attack, but Souths could not find the finishing touches and the Saints all too often took the wrong option inside the circle after some nice lead up play.

It was Pat’s fifth penalty corner that proved the turning point with four minutes left. Souths’ first runner Hitchcock charged down the first shot, but the ball fell to Ekert who powered home.

From the restart Pat’s quickly forced a turnover and Charters scored to make it 4-2.

The win was sealed when Josh Toole used his cricket skills to blast in a waist-high deflection on the right post from yet another penalty corner.

“A win is a win and we have got to keep winning, but it is the way you go about it. We could have easily blown up and started abusing each other because we weren’t playing that well, but we lifted,” Ekert said.

“It wasn’t made easy for us. Knowing we can pull ourselves out of a hole, which we did today, is good. The boys just ran hard and busted their guts and to do that in a tight contest was good. All the boys did that which is good, it’s not up to one or two people to do it.”

ST PAT’S 5 (Jaden Ekert 3, Josh Toole, Aiden Charters) defeated SOUTHS 2 (Adam Campbell, Josh Sherwani)