HOCKEY

National ‘A’ Division Boys
St Andrew’s Junior College vs Victoria Junior College
Friday, 11 May 2007 at CCAB

Story by an anonymous Red Sports reader (probably a Saint). No game photos were provided.

Victoria Junior College (VJC) was sent crashing out of the National ‘A’ Division Championship while underdogs Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) and St Andrew’s Junior College (SAJC) go through on penalty flicks.

Before the game, both VJC and SAJC knew that victory for one would send the other out of the tournament. A scoring draw would send ACJC out, but a goalless draw would have send all three teams to penalty flicks.

As fate would have it, the Saints and VJC played out a goalless draw, with VJ pressurising the Saints from the the word go, sending wave after wave of attack, as they held on to possession for large periods of the game.

The Victorians seemed to possess good individual skill, although try as they might, they just could not put the ball into the net.

However, the Saints defence held firm despite the avalanche of yellow Victorian shirts coming at them. Even when SA captain Taufiq got a yellow card, the Saints pressed on, with forward Ardot dropping to play a holding role in midfield, making a few crucial tackles.

The physical stress too took its toll, with Saints Matthew and Glenn succumbing to muscular cramps. Yet, their replacements stepped in long enough to hold the line to give them enough rest before Glenn and Matthew recovered to continue.

In the dying moments, Saints’ Weishing stole a ball and proceeded to launch a counter. Showing fantastic control to dribble round two players, everything was perfect until the finish, with the defender making a brilliant last ditch stick save to prevent Saints from scoring.

With the end of regulation time, penalty flicks were used to decide the outcome of a three way tie as all three games involving the three schools had ended in goalless draws.

Surprisingly, ACJC, the underdogs, won both penalty flicks to qualify as group winners.

That meant that either the Saints or VJC would have to be eliminated. Either the previous year’s runner up or 3rd place team would have their campaign ending early. The Saints in a show of unity, could be seen kneeling in a huddle, whilst deep in prayer as they sought help from above.

So it came down to VJC versus SAJC. The first few Saints converted their flicks, while VJ missed one. Then the VJC captain stepped up, and missed. Amazingly, the Saints keeper was not even the usual custodian.

With that miss the final whistle was blown, sending both Saints supporters and players into raptures, with joyous scenes of celebrations and tears being shed, as Victoria reflected on what might have been in a match they did not deserve to lose.