ITE beat hosts Ngee Ann Polytechnic to keep POL-ITE floorball championship hopes alive

Story by REDintern Dan Azmie. Photos by REDintern Rachel Lim.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Monday, October 20, 2008 – The Combined Institute of Technical Education (ITE) floorball team ensured that the Polytechnic-Institute of Technical Education (POL-ITE) men's Floorball Championship would go right down to the last game when they comfortably beat hosts Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) 4-1 yesterday.

After a heartbreaking loss to favourites Republic Polytechnic (RP) last Tuesday, the ITE team knew that they had to win big against NP to stand any chance of grabbing the title. Their task proved daunting given that they had to face a gutsy NP side backed by a partisan crowd.

From the face off, the ITE team went for the jugular, trying to impose control over the game by having most of the possession for the first five minutes. The NP defence however, stood firm and stayed resolute as they barely gave the opposition a whiff at goal, with NP #2 Daniel and #3 Sydi outstanding with their dogged defending. It proved to be an unfavourable scenario for an ITE team looking for goals, as for all their flair, they were found wanting in the finishing department.

Finally, seven minutes into the period, the ITE #27 managed to conjure up a chance, but his shot was smothered by the NP keeper Edmund. Ten minutes in, the ITE #5 roared through the left flank, pulled the ball back, but the ITE #10 just missed connecting by a whisker.

Then with just three minutes left, ITE tried again. The ITE #11 executed a shot from the left, but the NP keeper Edmund kept the ball out with his knees. With a mere 32 seconds left of the period, the ITE team finally got the much needed breakthrough. The ITE #7 showed excellent control to knee down a long ball from the NP half. Swooping to the right flank, he set up forward #24 who gleefully tapped it into the net. 1-0 to ITE. But they knew that they had to get more.

The second period started with that frame of mind, as again, ITE asserted control over possession. The first five minutes of that period was all one way traffic, with one notable move being #11 (ITE) nutmegging his marker to set up #28, but his shot was agonizingly wide. At 4.30, the #11 (ITE) was at it again, creating space to shoot, but it was saved, and then spilled by the keeper, presenting #4 with an open goal. Somewhat amazingly, the NP keeper Edmund made a superb reaction save to the left, to gasps from the crowd.

At five minutes, a long range attempt by the ITE skipper #71 went wide, but it rebounded to the diminutive, but effervescent #4 who squared it to an unmarked #68 to slot to the right of the net for a 2-0 ITE lead. Noticeably, the NP keeper Edmund seemed to pick up a hamstring injury, and looked to be in some pain. Could the ITE team capitalize on this mishap?

True enough, on 10 minutes, they managed to take advantage of yet another mix-up by NP in handling rebounds as the ITE #10 was first to react to lay the ball to his unmarked teammate #24 for his second of the game. ITE were now 3-0 up, but they were hungry for more while NP had to change their keepers, with #33 Melvin coming on for the injured Edmund.

However, later on in the period, the ITE #17 was sent to the ‘sin bin’ for an infringement, and they played one-man short for the rest of the period as they tried to keep a clean sheet.

The start of the third period saw substitute NP keeper Melvin called into action to cope with a barrage of ITE shots. Five minutes in, the NP keeper made three saves in quick succession, and a minute later the #11 (ITE) pulled the ball back for #71 to have a sweet shot, but which the keeper matched with an agile save to his left.

For all his effort, the NP keeper was helpless to prevent the fourth goal from coming, as the ITE #11 finally capped off a maverick performance by shooting from outside the box past the goalie’s left near post.

With five minutes of the game left, NP sprang into life. Captain Fattah (#18) swivelled the ball to send his marker into a crumbling heap, before going round the back of the goal and pulling it back to forward #15, who duly engaged the shot from the keeper’s blind-side and smashed it in from long range. It was an excellent goal, but it proved to be too little to late, and the final buzzer sounded soon afterward.

With the win, the ITE team kept alive their fight for the championship, but they will need to depend on the NP team winning big against RP to really take the fight to the wire. In retrospect, they could have won by a bigger margin, but a combination of stubborn resistance and good goalkeeping by the NP defence ensured that the result stayed respectable. ITE will have no choice but to to win big in their last game, against Nanyang Polytechnic.

Ed’s note: If you know the names of the players mentioned by numbers, please let us know and we’ll update the story. Thanks.