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Photos: Jack Western
The lacrosse men’s 1sts experienced a full range of weather and emotions at the 3G on Wednesday afternoon, as they ultimately edged out their nemesis Durham 2nds with a last-minute winner from captain William Chun.
Durham defeated York in the BUCS Northern Conference Cup final last season by a 13-3 scoreline. Meanwhile both teams remain undefeated in Northern 2B league play this season.
This match was a rematch of last year’s final, this time in the quarter-final stage. Victory means York are rewarded with a semi-final against Chester 1sts.
The game started scrappily, neither team establishing any early domination. Half-way through the first quarter, the score-line still read 0-0 and neither side had been able to carve out a clear cut chance on goal.
The early weather conditions at the 3G were pleasant, but this soon changed with the arrival of snow and howling wind.
The difficult conditions seemed not to affect York, and it could even be said they began to thrive in the cold. In the closing few minutes of the opening period, with wind and snow in their faces, York finally created good opportunities to worry the Durham defence.
And so with the flurry of snow came a flurry of goals, York opening out a 3-0 lead in the closing moments of the quarter thanks to two goals from Andy Thomas, which they held going into the break.
Clearly Durham were a stronger side than they showed in the first period, and from the second quarter on did themselves far more justice. For the second and third quarters, however, York matched them step for step. The score-line was toing and froing, but York never relinquished the lead during this period.
The second quarter was much more frantic than the first had been. The goals were shared four apiece, with most coming in a breathless period of play towards the end of the quarter.
York built their lead to 4-0 thanks to a long range effort from Chris Menon, before Durham finally registered with the scorers after some nice build-up.
After a short lull, the quarter burst into life. Durham threatened to level the scores with two quick goals, the second coming immediately from the face-off after the first. But Thomas completed his hat-trick less than a minute later to make the score 5-3.
Another Durham goal once again cut the deficit to one, but York were able to re-establish the three point lead which they had brought into the quarter, courtesy of another Thomas goal and a driving run and shot from midfield by Sam Pick.
The half-time lead of 7-4 was probably a fair reflection of the game so far. York had played solidly throughout, and despite a fight-back from Durham were deserved in their advantage.
The third quarter saw York’s lead grow once more. The next four goals were shared between the two sides, before the goal of the game gave York a 10-6 lead. Scott Nuckey had the ball on the right hand side, firing in a pass which was collected and directed into the net by Dan Ball, who got there just ahead of the keeper.
York looked set to coast home to victory in the final quarter of the match, but Durham had other ideas. For the first time since 0-0, the visitors managed to draw level thanks to four consecutive goals.
Repeated criews from the sideline to slow down play were not heeded as Durham managed time and again to steal possession and turn it into chances. The goal which made it 10-10 was the epitome of this, York losing the ball whilst on the attack and Durham embarking on a quick break to level the scores.
Captain William Chun called a timely time-out. York needed to regroup after a sloppy quarter thus far, with Durham having held them without scoring up to that point. The momentum was with the visitors.
But regroup York did, and it was the energetic Chun who led from the front. Receiving the ball on the right-hand side, he turned inside before unleashing a bullet shot from close range. The Durham keeper had no chance of stopping it, and with only half a minute to play York’s lead was re-established.
Though Durham had one more drive, they relinquished possession carelessly and York were able to play out the final few seconds.
The full-time whistle was greeted with cheers of jubilation, and rightly so as York snatched the last-gasp victory, a win which looked certain for most of the match, but had looked likely to slip from their grasp in the final minutes.
At the end of the game, an ecstatic Chun told Vision: “This is the game we’ve been looking for all season. We lost to these guys in the final last year, they thrashed us 13-3, so to beat them in such a close game feels fantastic.
“At the end it was tense, into the last few minutes, but we pushed and every single player put in the effort. I’m so proud of them.”
The side travels to Hull next Wednesday for their next league match, ahead of the following Sunday’s Varsity match.
1) Why is there no mention of the biblical hit by 93 in the opening minutes, which arguably set the pace of the game, and possibly even won it for York.
2) Why do you only ever get pictures of him falling over. This hit would make the highlight reel of any major sports network, and you could have had the rights to that image. Unlucky.