Republic Polytechnic, Thursday, March 3, 2011 — Catholic High endured a furious final period charge by Bedok South Secondary to secure a nail-biting 8-5 win in the National B Division Floorball Championship.

Bedok South’s Singapore Schools player Lim Jian Hong (#10) scored a crucial goal in the third period to spark his team’s fightback, but it proved too little, too late.

With the win, Catholic High and Victoria School, who have won both of their group matches, marched into the semi-finals with a game to spare. They will next play each other for the group placing on Monday, March 7.

Catholic High had started the game brightly, scoring the game’s first four goals to seemingly secure the tie. Bedok South, perhaps worn out after their gruelling match against Victoria School in an earlier group game, seemed lethargic and could not match the intensity of the Catholic High players.

However Bedok South began to sense some hope when a shot was horribly deflected into goal by one of Catholic High’s players with just seconds to spare in the first period. Bedok South ended the first 1-4 down.

The second period was an evenly contested one, with Bedok South’s other key player, Iqbal (#12), controlling play from the back. Catholic High’s Jarryl Chan however was equal to the task, scoring two goals in the second period to make amends for his earlier own goal. The second period ended with Bedok South’s Jian Hong scoring a dazzling solo effort past four Catholic High players to trail by 2-6.

Bedok South made the game exciting by scoring the first two goals of the third period to narrow Catholic High’s lead to 6-4. Catholic High’s captain Darrell Er however replied with a goal to settle his team’s nerves and extend his team’s lead to a comfortable 7-4. The game eventually ended with Catholic High wrapping it up with an 8-5 win.

Catholic High’s top scorer Ryan Cheng may have scored three goals for his team, but he was left rueing his earlier penalty miss.

“I tried to imitate a move I had learnt on Youtube, but executed it too near the keeper and made a mistake as a result,” he lamented.

Yet he was happy that his team managed to qualify for the semi-finals for the first time in the young team’s history.

“I’m glad that our hard work and efforts during training in the past few years paid off and excited about playing the top teams in floorball,” he said.

Victoria School romped to an 11-2 win over Northbrooks Secondary in the other group game.

National B Division Floorball Championship – 3rd round fixtures and results