Story by REDintern Christy. Pictures by REDintern Teo Zhijia
National Inter-School A Division Boys Floorball Championship: Tampines Sports Complex, Thursday, July 10, 2008 – National Junior College (NJC) satisfied their hunger to complete their season with at least a win when they triumphed 5-3 over Nanyang Junior College (NYJC).
NJC started the first period with a blast, sending loads of accurate shots towards the NYJC goalkeeper. Commendably, the NYJC keeper remained confident and managed to pull off great saves to keep the game scoreless. At 05:46, a free hit awarded to NJC allowed NJC Samuel (#13) to send an assisted pass to NJC Sukiat (#22) who promptly slotted it into the goal for a 1-0 lead.
Not long after, at 09:33, Jason (#24) scored again, whacking the ball straight in to make it 2-0. The ball, upon hitting the net, bounced out again and to make doubly sure the goal was counted, another NJC player made the extra effort to send the ball back into goal. The last shot of the period was made by NYJC Samuel (#13) who scored at the 11:24 min mark to make it a commanding 3-0 lead. This forced the NYJC bench to switch keepers.
Undeterred, NYJC started the second period with a team cheer, hoping to change the team’s fate. Credit goes to the NJC goalkeeper for keeping his cool during a goal melee and knocking the ball out with composure. The only other significant moment of the second period was a near miss by the NYJC #23 despite having a perfect scoring opportunity. The second half was dreary, with both teams defending doggedly and not allowing the opposition to score and it was no surprise that neither team scored a goal.
NYJC came back in the the third period with a vengeance, scoring within seconds of the restart. The NYJC #15 scored with a stunning volley at the 00:27 mark to catch the NJC’s defense by surprise and make it 1-3. Less than two minutes later, NYJC captain #23 converted his chance this time around and smashed in a high ball which eluded the NJC goalie to make it 2-3. NYJC were now effectively back in the game.
The NJC team were losing stamina, a key reason for conceding two quick goals to NJC so early in the third period. Their intense defending in the first two periods, where two or even three players descended upon an opposition player, was now starting to take its toll on the players.
Nevertheless, with less than 10 minutes remaining on the clock, NJC gave their all and ran their hearts out. At 08:21, Jason (NJC, #10) scored with an unstoppable shot into the corner of the net to make it 4-2 to give his team some breathing room. NJC felt even more comfortable when Louis (NJC, #11) scored from a free hit at the 10:24 mark for a 5-2 lead. Louis’ goal was made possible by the effective screen that teammate Kin Phang (#27) set up as he effectively blocked the NYJC goalie’s view with his butt (a rather comical tactic in floorball if you ask me).
Although the NYJC captain, #23, scored at the 11:26 mark, it was too late salvage the match and they went down 3-5.
Despite NYJC’s brillant comeback in the third period, it was ultimately their errors in the first period that cost NYJC the game. Applause goes to NJC for demonstrating their immense will to win in the game.
This Wednesday, 16th July at Tampines Sports Hall:
NYJC and MI will play their last match against each other at 12.15pm.
Editors note: If you recognise yourself or your team mates in any of the photos, feel free to leave the names behind in the comments section and we will update the captions accordingly. Names of the players mentioned in the article will also be very much appreciated. Thanks!
For your information, NYJC #23 is Eddy.
Hi christy thanks for a great article and zhijia for great pics. im just wondering if you happen to have more pics? haha it was my last game of my jc career and im wondering if i can keep some as mementos thanks so much!
male goalies do worst stuff. they may aim for your knees to make them buckle or sometimes even perform a “lowblow” when the referees are not looking. dirty play i guess.
i remember, beale. the moment the refs said that, you lay off, good job for playing fair 😀
woah good one
haha, that’s because we goalies get blown at by the ref for pushing them away..”no hands in the box!” yeah..that’s what we always hear..
fbplayer: Your point being?
oooh… I learnt something new: screening! haha. Oh well, jan, if you watch floorball girls you would even be able to see the goalie pushing the butt of the player blocking her. And its common. The boys don’t do it though and I wonder why… HAHA.
let in is worse than concede.
fbplayer> concede = let in
Screening is a tactic employed in some other sports as well. but rather than just blocking the view, movement of the player is blocked as well.
Oh. And thank you for covering most of the matches. I didn’t get to watch every match. So it’s good to see some reviews and comments here.
i think there are quite some problems with the article. and i think it is let in not concede.
passerby, are you serious? There is actually a technical term for blocking the goalie’s view with your butt?!!
Christy, I’m growing increasingly fascinated with this sport I tell you, ha ha!
“he effectively blocked the NYJC goalie’s view with his butt”
it’s actually called screening, aha.
Gerard started first and was substituted by frederick after conceding the 2 goals
Hey njfloorball,
can i have the goalie name too?
thank you nj floorball.
to mike: Thanks for the correction. I didn’t spot that. I guess zhijia was half awake when she did the captions – we were both tired out and have been rushing out the articles. But still great photos aren’t they? =)
photo #3; its a free HIT not kick.
the nj player in photo 4 is #13 Samuel, who is in photo 5 also.
NJ #24 is Jason, #10 is Gary, #11 is Louis and #27 is Kin Phang