Hawks L1 bag a 4-1 win against ISCA

Keen to redeem themselves from the previous week’s loss against the bottom of the league, Hawks remembered how to play hockey this week. Starting in the first minute of the game with a beautiful through ball to Cita who accelerated past defenders and entered the top of the D. The keeper came out and flattened her, a clear foul, but the ball fell to Lucy Dakin who was able to slot the ball home to the encouraging shout of her teammate ‘Do it, Lucy, Do it’. Kudos to the umpires for playing that advantage, giving the home side an early 1-0 lead.

Hawks settled into the game, playing some nice passing hockey, and pressing effectively to keep control of the game. When ISCA did break through to win a few corners, they were well defended by an effective number one running blocking the shot and some controlled defending. Building the play with some nice outletting enabled Hawks to maintain the pressure on the ISCA defence.

Into the third quarter a pass up the line to Lexi Spurr opened up the ISCA defence as she drove hard round the back to cross it into the D. The ball falling to Becca Edwards on the edge of the D who neatly passed into Catherine Reaney’s reverse who turned in front of the keeper to reverse juggle it to Gemma Croker who easily put away the final touch to make the score 2-0. A sustained period of pressure from Hawks was rewarded by right to left high pitch transfer landing the ball with Jemima Spurr who threaded a pass through to Emily Clark who swept the ball first time across to the far-right post, leaving a confident Hawks 3-0 up. ISCA weren’t going home without a fight though, winning a corner for a Hawks foot in the D. Hawks defended well, but conceded a second corner after players were caught crossing each other in their defensive efforts. ISCA put together a neat slip right, hit and deflect to the top corner routine that saw them secure their first goal of the game.

In the fourth quarter Hawks drilled home their lead winning a corner after a ball lifted into a Hawks player off a desperate ISCA defender. A beautiful, disguised slip routine led to a deflection for Kim waiting low on the keepers’ pads to make the score 4-1. Hawks saw out the game and came away energised and redeemed following their previous weeks performance. Good prep for the long drive down to Exeter next week!