Story contributed by reader Jeremy Bin of Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)

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ACS(IND), Thursday, March 27, 2008 – Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) beat Outram Secondary 20-2 to edge closer to the Water Polo B Division Championship Final.

With only one win from three matches (lost to ACS(BR) 3-14, HCI 4-6, beat RI 8-4), ACS(IND) still stood a chance to get into the final. All that stood between us and that glory would be to win the final two group stage matches for the season.

Our penultimate match was against Outram Secondary. It was tense, and despite being favoured for the win, overconfidence and complacency could be our undoing.

In the first quarter, we started off slowly, surprised by Outram's fierce fight and only scoring two goals at the midway point of the quarter, one of which was a penalty. The many misses also contributed to our under performance. But pulling ourselves back together from the surprising attacks, we put in two more goals and came out of the first quarter, tired, bruised, but leading 4-0.

The second quarter was much more of a breeze than the first, with us putting another four goals in the net to lead 8-0. Outram indeed put up a good fight, threatening us many times, but goalkeeper Teo Wei Yang rose to the occasion and did his job well, keeping a clean sheet.

At half-time, with a relatively comfortable lead, our second team was put in, and, sensing this, Outram sent out a volley of attacks, and inevitably putting one in the back of our net. There were a number of slip-ups by our greener players and keeper, but learning from our mistakes, we kept a tight game and pressed on, earning yet another four goals by the end of the quarter to lead 12-0.

In the last quarter, we set a target for ourselves, wanting to beat Raffles Institution's sixteen goal margin of victory over Outram. That meant we had to put in at least four more. However, a powerful counter-attack by Outram saw us concede another goal. Not wanting to lose out to Raffles, we pressed on and we eventually scored seven more goals within the quarter.

Working as a team, we managed to suppress the waves of attacks by Outram. In the dying moments of the last quarter, we managed to pull off yet another save, and our center-back Kim Young Wook took a pot shot from the halfway line at the last second to score a spectacular goal for a 20-2 victory.

To God Be The Glory, The Best Is Yet To Be.

Jeremy Bin
ACS (Independent)
Water Polo