In a tightly contested match, the Gloucester Panthers had a very different hockey game on their hands against the refurbished Cundletown Cougars.
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In the first round, the Panthers had a run-away win of 11-0 but this time, Cougars came out fighting. Gloucester was still the first to strike off a short corner from centre half, Paul Rosenbaum and this was backed up in the 15th minute with a nice touch from winger, Josh Howard, in the corner post.
The Cougars fought back at this stage and put tremendous pressure on fill-in keeper, Dale Tonks, who made some tremendous saves against Cougars strong hitter, Michael Green. The defence finally let up with seven minutes to go in the first half as Michael Green made a solid shot off a short corner.
In the second half, the Cundletown team kept up their momentum to level the score within minutes of the whistle.
Newcomer Harrison Moore positioned himself in the right place to deflect a ball from Mark Coombes into the goal to again take the lead. But this was short lived as the Cougars once again levelled the score as they outnumbered and outmanoeuvred our defence to level the score up.
In a very evenly matched game, both sides saw equal time and equal opportunities in attack with some very frustrating missed chances but with 10 minutes remaining, Gloucester’s right inner lead a one man charge through the circle and around four Cougars’ players to finish with a great backhanded shot into the goal to take the score up to 4-3.
Cundletown continued pressing Gloucesters’ defence and again, with a well placed winger, levelled the score 4-4. With three minutes remaining, Gloucester conceded a short corner and Michael Green put a well placed ball through the defence to see their team take the lead for the first time that match. Gloucester was not done yet and put pressure back on the Cougars to force a short corner against them.
Mark Coombes was able to connect a lose ball and level the score with a minute and a half left on the clock. The Panthers were able to maintain control of the ball long enough to run the clock down but not enough to take back the lead. Final score, 5-5.