Royals and Lake Albert played out their second draw of the division one men’s hockey season at Jubilee Park on Saturday.
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Neither team was unable to find the match winning goal at the death, with scores locked at 2-2.
In a see-sawing contest, undermanned Lake Albert found the net first with leading goal scorer Ben Baker beating Logan Wilford to score his 13th goal of the season before serving time in the central dugout.
Connor Higgins played well in his return to game, as Pat O’Donnell beat Benson Williams in goals as the Lake defence had crumbled.
Lake Albert fought their way back into the contest through Craig Knowles and Brendan Pottie, with Royals desperately missing Luke Bradley and Tim Cranston in the back half.
Both teams had their opportunities to score the match winner but were unable to penetrate the goals as the match destined towards a draw.
Meanwhile, reigning premiers CSU-Rivcoll downed Harlequins 3-2 in a hotly contested encounter.
But CSU let their bad habits get the better of them early on, with their defence conceding an early goal to Harlequins captain Brendan Watson.
CSU then gained their composure after Brendan Watson took a tumble and limped from the field to tie the score up 1-1 in the first half through a drag flick from Jacob Barnsley.
Both teams had players sent from the field as the match tighten up.
CSU then took the lead before the injured Brendan Watson returned to the field to score his seventh goal in three games tie the game again, this time at 2-2.
But a deflection goal by CSU’s Max Hanrahan with 10 minutes to go proved to be the difference between the two sides.
In the top-flight women’s competition, Royals Blue returned to the winner’s list with a resounding 6-1 victory over third-placed Rosellas.
The Blue side led from start to finish despite a consolation goal to Sophie Bailey for Rosellas.
With four different goal scorers, captain Maree Beresford and Ashleigh Yan led the way up forward with two goals each as they had Rosellas keeper Ann Gadsby on the backfoot.
Royals Blue were dominant across the field with Rosellas unable to contain Jesse Thompson or Simone Lotter.
Lucy Angel tried hard but Rosellas were missing their groove that they recently discovered over the past few weeks.
Royals White secured the women’s minor premiership with a 5-2 win over a gallant CSU-Rivcoll team.
Tracey Gibbons led the way with two goals.
But the victory was far from easy for the White team with the bottom-placed CSU putting up an admirable fight for much of the second-half as the Royals White defence worked overtime to keep the lead at 3-2.
CSU had their opportunities midway through the second-half to draw level, but missed crucial shots on goal on two penalty corners.
Royals eventually capitalised when they finally scored their fourth goal of the match, beating stand-in CSU keeper Alison Eddie.
The goal snuffed out any chance for CSU to deny Royals White the victory despite the best efforts of CSU’s Elise Kinsey and Emma Lynch.
Full Results
Division 1 Men
CSU/RIVCOLL 3 (N.Fahey, M.Hanrahan, J.Barnsley) defeated HARLEQUINS 2 (Brendan Watson 2)
LAKE ALBERT 2 (B.Baker 2) drew with ROYALS 2 (P.O’Donnell 2)
Division 1 Women
ROYALS BLUE 6 (M.Beresford 2, A.Yan 2, S.Lotter, E.Nicoll) defeated ROSELLAS 1 (S.Bailey)
ROYALS WHITE 5 (T.Gibbons 2, Z.Wild, N.Rees, L.Menzies) defeated CSU/RIVCOLL 2 (C.Holland, S.Gough)