Late equalisers create local hockey dramatics
HOCKEY: Another dramafilled evening has swept through the Toowoomba Hockey preliminary finals.
It started with the women’s A1 final, as Red Lion and Past High battled it out for the right to take on Rangeville in the decider.
Riding high on the back of five straight wins, third-placed Past High came out of the blocks fast, with goals to Savannah Trapp and Holly Gilbar giving them a 2-0 lead in the first quarter.
Monique Thomas was able to extend the lead to three, before Amber Suey gave Red Lion a much needed goal minutes out from the half-time siren.
Past High looked to have one foot in the grand final door after Susie Marcussen converted a penalty corner, giving her side a 4-1 advantage with 29 minutes to play.
That’s when the secondplaced side kicked into gear, as Rachel McCreedy and Suey’s second helped them back into the contest as it approached the final 10 minutes.
They left it until late, but it was the ever-reliable Heidi Phillips that helped her team into the grand final, with her 69th minute strike levelling the scores at 4-all, with Red Lion progressing as a higher seed.
The higher-seed rule came into effect in the men’s A1 competition, as Newtown and Rangeville fought out a 2-all draw.
Ultimately it was Newtown that worked its way into the grand final to take on Red Lion, although they were made to work for it.
Rangeville had the best of the early running, and were able to hold a handy 2-0 lead at half-time courtesy of a Brad Messenger double.
A tense third quarter looked set to be a goallesss one, before Aaron Kenealley got Newtown on the board.
It was Kenealley again that would go down as the hero, slotting home a 67th minute field goal to send Newtown through to the decider.
It now sets up a replay of last year’s decider between Red Lion and Newtown, with the former looking for back-to-back titles.