Panthers take Melbourne Uni to School

The weekend saw the first ‘Super Saturday’ held at the State Hockey Centre, seeing all State League 1 games fixtured on pitch 1.  The Panthers faced up against Melbourne University a team recently promoted from State League 2.

Waverley was out to stamp their authority on the game early by placing MUHC under constant pressure, hoping to find cracks in their defence.  The past few weeks have seen the Panthers struggle to convert early ascendancy in games into scoreboard pressure but Aaron Swindells made sure that trend didn’t continue.  Two almost identical goals saw the striker slot wonderful diving back-stick shots, getting the Panthers off to a flying start.

The entire first half was dominated by Waverley and with constant pressure on their deep defence and midfield, the MUHC sidefailed to get any real penetration into their attack.  Patience and quality ball movement allowed Waverley forwards to manipulate the opposition’s defence and commence a goal scoring spree, banging in 6 goals up to the half time mark.

The challenge was laid down at half time to continue to attack and take the game to the Melbourne University team.  Only 2 weeks prior with a similar score line the Panthers had given the opposition a sniff after the break changing the entire flow of the game so coach Zac Hawes demanded his players ‘go on with it’ and bury the opposition.

Tim Thompson finished off a well earned penalty stroke and on his 21^st Birthday, Stephen Jarvis was on song finishing with a hat-trick of goals from well executed penalty corners, the Waverley goal scoring spree rolled on throughout the second half.

With complete dominance of the game, a disappointing late goal was conceded, however the Panthers had achieved what they set out to do finishing off the match and scoring another 5 goals in the second half to annihilate the opposition 11-1.

Goal Scorers: S. Jarvis 3, A. Swindells 2, T. Wischusen 2, J. Glasscock 1, D. Brennan 1, T. Thompson 1, T. Brooks 1.

Coach’s Best on Ground: Aaron Swindells

Skin Institute Best on Ground Award: Stephen Jarvis