AN early barrage of goals for St Pat’s White paved the way for a 3-1 success in Saturday’s Bathurst Men’s Hockey Association first grade grand final over Souths Aces.
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When Saints got up 3-0 early in the last match of the season the two blues needed to get proceedings back in control quickly or Pat’s would run away with the game.
Souths found a reply inside the opening 20 minutes, but that’s the way the scoreboard stayed until the final whistle.
It was a stunning result for the Saints considering the way the season had played out.
Pat’s won the opening match of the season against Souths but the two blues romped home in the following four games.
In those four matches the Aces scored a combined 37 goals on their way to a comfortable minor premiership success.
However, on Saturday at Bob Roach Field the Saints picked the perfect time of the season to strike back.
Pat’s captain Luke Thorncraft said his side couldn’t put a foot wrong in the opening quarter of the grand final.
“The boys played really well. We just showed up to play in that first 15 minutes,” he said.
“All game the guys did a great job at keeping the Souths boys out.
“I can’t fault the boys across this entire season. It’s been great from start to finish.”
Unfortunately for Souths it was their own stick which handed Pat’s the opening goal of the game.
Darcy Davis then made it 2-0 from the field and Charlie Schofield was successful from a penalty corner.
Michael O’Connor stopped the wave of Saints’ early pressure with his goal to make it 3-1.
Despite a collection of scoring opportunities for both clubs throughout the remainder of the game that was the way things remainder.
“It’s just unfortunate we didn’t show up for the first 20 minutes because for the rest of the game we competed well,” Aces’ Chris Stafford said.
“We controlled the ball well from that point, and had plenty of opportunities, but we couldn’t put them away.”
