College Hockey: Alcuin 4-3 Goodricke

[visiongallery set=72157629510814277]
A double from Tom Sherwood helped Alcuin to record a narrow 4-3 victory over Goodricke. As per usual Alcuin were struggling for numbers with only 7 players, including the ill Steph Ashwood, who valiantly helped her team out on a cold, wet and generally unpleasant morning. Goodricke had plenty of players, but were limited to only 9 on the field at once, due to their lack of girls.

After a fairly balanced start to the game, Alcuin took the lead after Sherwood found Emmett on the edge of the area, who calmly slid the ball home to put Alcuin in the ascendancy. Goodricke responded brightly and two goals in the space of five minutes rocked Alcuin, and put the men from Heslington East into the lead. They threatened to extend the lead with Ashwood having to make a crucial block to deny Goodricke a third.

Alcuin, however, constantly looked dangerous when going forward, and an Alcuin breakaway, instigated by Randall and Washington saw Sherwood through on goal, and he slotted home to level the encounter. A short corner soon followed for Alcuin, and despite Washington’s initial strike being excellently blocked, the rebound broke to Washington again, and his follow up was blocked on the line by a Goodricke foot, leading to the award of a penalty goal. Goodricke tried to respond, but Alcuin defended resolutely, and at the interval led 3-2.

The second half continued much in the same fashion, with both teams looking dangerous on the attack. A Goodricke effort from close range clipped the outside of the post, whilst a crucial intervention from Randall snuffed out another dangerous attack. As fatigue started to set in, with the challenging conditions, more space started to open up, and Goodricke tried to use their numerical advantage, as they frequently had an overload going forward.

But Alcuin continued to defend strongly and battled hard, and eventually with only minutes left, they scored through Sherwood to more or less settle the contest. Goodricke didn’t give up, and in the last minute grabbed a goal back after good work down the right, but it was only a consolation as the final whistle followed, to signal a hard earned Alcuin victory.

Despite their numerical advantage, Goodricke slipped to defeat, one which greatly disappointed them. Alcuin captain Randall commented, “It was a good victory, which we battled hard for against the odds”. In the end Alcuin’s superior quality told, but Goodricke were tough opposition.

Vision MOTM: Tom Sherwood