Thanks to an early three-goal blitz Bathurst St Pat’s handed Orange Wanderers their third straight defeat of the men’s Premier League Hockey season on Saturday afternoon, the Saints bouncing back from the previous week’s drubbing at the hands of the Lithgow Panthers in the process.
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The Saints took advantage of Wanderers’ slow start to shoot out to a 3-0 lead inside the opening 20 minutes and while the young Orange side lifted in the second half, it just proved too big a mountain to climb.
Isaac Darlington slashed home goals in the third and sixth minutes at Orange Hockey Centre while Jaden Ekert laced on into the back of the net at the 16-minute mark too, the Saints ultimately going on to win 5-2.
“It was really good, we needed to back up a tough loss with a good win,” St Pat’s skipper Darcy Davis said.
“It was really important we got that fast start and it made a big difference. Having Jaden Ekert playing striker really helped.
“Fatigue did kick in a bit toward the end but you know we only had one substitute, the turf’s a bit tough and it was a hot day, outside that I was pretty impressed with the way we played.”
The Orange outfit did peg one back late in the first half with Adam Skelton’s 32nd minute effort but that was cancelled out by Ekert’s second on the stroke of half-time, which Wanderers coach Mark Pengilly said was as costly as the first three.
“Conceding right on half-time like that wasn’t ideal, especially not when we’d let a few in early in the half as well,” he said.
“That’s been our problem all year really. The week before we were really good in the first half and dropped off, this week we just the opposite. We just need to try and put together a complete performance because once we did start playing well we matched it with St Pat’s I thought.
“We’re picking things up every week and improving though, but we had a few new players come in and we’re still coming together. We’ll get there over the next few weeks I think though.”
Darlington completed his hat-trick four minutes after the break to push the Saints ahead 5-1, before Caiden Redden scored for Wanderers with 20 to go, the last time the scorers were troubled.
Although he admitted the young Wanderers still have plenty of work to do Davis heaped praise on the Orange outfit.
“They were really good, they’re a good young team,” he said.
“They’re not quite there yet but they’ve got a lot of really talented, young, local juniors and I think if that group can stay together for the next two or three years they might be the team to beat.”
- BATHURST ST PAT’S 5 (Isaac Darlington 3, Jaden Ekert 2) def ORANGE WANDERERS 2 (Adam Skelton, Caiden Redden)
Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
