Story and photos by Les Tan/Red Sports

national b division floorball

Crenshawn Lim (Catholic High #23, red) sees his shot hit the back of the Victoria School net to make it 5-2 in the final period. Crenshawn finished the game with two goals in the 6-3 win. (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)

Republic Polytechnic, Friday, March 11, 2011 — Catholic High qualified for and won their first-ever National B Division Floorball Championship with a comprehensive 6-3 win over Victoria School.

Catholic High finished the season with a 10-1 win-loss record, their only loss coming in a 1-4 reverse against defending champions Bukit Merah Secondary in an earlier round.

For Victoria School, it was third time unlikely as this was their third consecutive final appearance, having lost their previous two against Bukit Merah Secondary.

Three long-range goals by Catholic High gave them a 3-0 lead over Victoria, leaving some in the crowd surprised.

“Honestly, as a Catholic High player, it was a surprise we were leading 3-nil after the 1st period, considering we beat them 3-2 in the top 8 group stage,” said Catholic High vice-captain Joshua Lee. “Overall, I think we won because of great teamwork and the hard work we all put in since Secondary 1. Our coach is good too.”

After some early nerves, Catholic High’s Ryan Cheng opened the scoring for his team with a speculative shot into goal from half court. Darrell Er scored the next and the third goal was from a pass by Darrell to the blind side of the keeper which Crenshawn finished. It was 3-0 and the Victoria supporters were rather subdued.

However, Victoria School came back strongly in the second period and got the break they needed when Catholic High’s forward Crenshawn Lim was sent to the official’s bench for a foul. Patiently exploiting their one-man advantage, the Victoria players passed the ball around before finding a breakthrough through Matthew Yong (#47) who scored through a reverse flick.

Leading 3-1, Catholic High suffered another nervy moment in the second period when forward Ryan Cheng was sent to the sin bin for another foul. Victoria’s Hamizan Ismail (#28) thought that he had scored a crucial second goal in the ensuing power play but his teammate was whistled for pushing, much to the dismay of the Victorian supporters.

Having survived the one-man disadvantage without conceding a goal, Catholic High dealt Victoria a psychological blow with a goal almost immediately after they were back at full strength. Ryan Cheng scored his second and his team’s fourth goal with a long-range flick to ensure that Catholic High led 4-1 at the end of the second period.

Again, Victoria came storming back as they embarked on a furious comeback effort in the final period. They were duly rewarded with a goal when Hamizan Ismail (Victoria #28) capitalised on some sloppy Catholic High defending to flick his shot past the Catholic High goalkeeper. Victoria now trailed by two at 2-4 and the game was still alive as a contest.

Catholic High responded immediately by sending their first line back into the match. The move paid off with Crenshawn Lim driving down the left flank, moving across the face of goal and scoring to maintain a more comfortable three-goal cushion at 5-2.

But Victoria would not go down without a fight. Yet another piece of individual magic by Riku Alatalo hauled Victoria back into contention. Gaining possession of the ball at the sideline, he dribbled past the Catholic High defenders, swept behind the goal and scored from the other side past the Catholic High goalkeeper Eugene Lee.

The Catholic High lead was now back down to two at 5-3 and the outcome of the final was still uncertain.

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