NSW State boys has pulled away in the final quarter to win its opening match of the Hockey Australia Under 15s National Championships against Victoria Development on Friday morning.
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Featuring Bathurst talent Ollie Bestwick, NSW State comfortably defeated their southern rivals 5-1 at the Cooke Hockey Complex, however, it was much closer heading into the final quarter, with NSW up by one goal.
NSW State coach Kieran Knowles said it was a good start to the competition.
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"I think it's a really good start for our tournament," he said.
"There's plenty of work to be done but Victoria came out with a really good attitude, giving it to us for a while but the boys got the job done in the last quarter, which was fairly pleasing.
"We dominated the play, we just had to convert and be a bit more clinical in the front half. It was just us needing to rise for the challenge and we stepped up to it in the final quarter."
NSW State opened the scoring within the first two minutes thanks to Kalani Franklin and it could've been 2-0 at quarter time, but Victoria's Williams Ashton was able to save a penalty stroke from Kane Nutley.
Joshua Robson would go on to make it 2-0 in the second quarter, before Angus Le pulled it back to 2-1 just before three quarter time.
But it was in the final quarter when NSW showed its class, with three goals in six minutes from captain Oskar Smith, Jared Findley and Nutley sealing the 5-1 victory.
Knowles noted Bestwick's work throughout the match.
"Ollie is a great kid, works really hard and plays well," he said.
"He does his job for the team. He's a good kid, but they're all good kids."
NSW State played WA Black later that afternoon after this publication went to print.
- NSW STATE 5 (Kalani Franklin, Joshua Robson, Oskar Smith, Jared Findley, Kane Nutley) defeated VICTORIA DEVELOPMENT 1 (Angus Le)
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