Two late goals give Canty hockey side win

Press, 7 June 1982, Page 24

Two late goals give Canty hockey side win

Canterbury had several anxious moments before it scored two goals in the last six minutes lo beat Manawatu 2-1 in the Noel Leeming quadrangular hockey tournament at Porritt Park yesterday. Canterbury will play Wellington in the final this afternoon.

Canterbury trailed for a substantial part of the game against Manawatu, and as the last 10 minutes approached the prospects of Canterbury even earning a draw began to dim. It had had several good scoring chances, but missed them all.

George Carnoutsos finally equalised in the twenty-ninth minute, and three minutes later Greg Pierce scored a superb goal, but injured himself badly in the process.

A free hit from the lefthand side of the field was missed by a group of players at the top of the circle. Pierce, the right-half, moved quickly to the ball as it ran across the circle, controlled it, and flicked it through the pads of Graeme Sligo, the Manawatu goal-keeper, who was moving out to cover the shot.

In scoring the goal Pierce fell and suffered a suspected broken wrist and slight concussion. When congratulated for scoring the goal by the coach, Jim Bowden, after the game, he could not remember his match-winning feat.

Manawatu's speed to the ball caused problems for

Canterbury in the first half, and the defence looked ragged several times. The Manawatu goal came originally from a penalty-corner. The first shot was blocked, but there was a shot from the rebound, and finally on the second rebound. Dennis Cooper pushed the ball past the Canterbury defence.

Canterbury was not without chances, and it forced the same number of penaltycorners in the half as Manawatu — four. The first 30 minutes of the second half was a series of missed chances for Canterbury. It had control of the mid-field, allowing Manawatu only a few excursions into its circle.

At the other end nothing went right for Canterbury. It had seven penalty-corners in the first 18 minutes of. the half. One was stopped on the goal-line after Sligo was beaten, and lan Riach pushed a rebound wide.

Sligo was playing a leading role in frustrating Canterbury's scoring attempts. He w’as smothering and clearing shots with typical effectiveness.

Canterbury’s hopes were lifted and dashed in the twenty-fifth minute. Riach hit a goal-post and the ball rebounded into play: however. the umpire was unsighted and thought the ball had entered the goal. He awarded a goal initially. After protests by the Manawatu defence he quickly altered his decision.

Canterbury's first goal was the result of a controlled passing movement between Balvant Bhana and Mark Burtt. It ended with Warwick Shillito running onto a pass on the back-line and clipping the ball back across the goal to Carnoutsos on the lefthand post. Wellington yesterday had its second win in as many days. It scored twice in the last three minutes of the first half and beat Otago 2-0. On Saturday Wellington scored after five minutes against Manawatu. and had to hold desperately to the lead in some anxious minutes in the second half. Jan Borren scored the Wellington goal. Yesterday Wellington was much more forceful with Peter Miskimmin at centreforward and he scored the first goal, slipping the ball past Maurice Marquet, the Otago goal-keeper, from an acute angle. On Saturday Canterbury beat Otago 3-0, scoring all its goals' from penalties in the first 15 minutes. lan Steel scored from two of the first three penalty-corners the side received, and then Carnoutsos scored from a pen-alty-stroke. Results:

Saturday-Canterbury 3(I. Steel 2, G. Carnoutsos). Otago 0; Wellington 1 (J. J. Borren), Manawatu 0.

Sunday—Canterbury 2 (Carnoutsos, G. Pierce). Manawatu 1 (D. Cooper); Wellington 2 (P. Miskimmin, K. Gallen), Otago 0.