Story and photos by Les Tan/Red Sports
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.
Go to next page for more of the story, photos, videos and match statistics
if catholic high is tt gd, they will be in the top 4 nxt yr. but they will not, for obvious reasons
It’s a matter of the batch of players (:
Ha Ha, It is a fact. Someone hates fact. Well they could have won or lost and that is not the question. Weak or good defence is not the issue. The fact is they are unbeaten. Hard to swallow right. So in the same light CHS was lucky ha ha too.
“Someone hates fact.”
I’m not sure which “Someone” you’re referring to, but I LOVE fact! 🙂
“Well they could have won or lost and that is not the question. Weak or good defence is not the issue.”
But it IS an issue, and an important one, because a strong/weak defence is CRUCIAL to the result, whether the result is a win, loss or draw (or, as you like to euphemistically say, “unbeaten”).
“The fact is they are unbeaten. Hard to swallow right.”
Then may I say, the fact is BMS *failed to win* their last 3 matches due to their weak defence; hard to swallow, right? xD
“So in the same light CHS was lucky ha ha too.”
I’ve never denied that CHS received some good luck this season (which includes meeting with weak defences from some teams, and I’m not referring to VS only); but that does not mean that they don’t deserve to win the championship because they do, for obvious reasons. 🙂
Cheers justanotherfanofchsfloorball2011bdivteam! CHS ROCKS
I guess the only undefeated team in regulation time is BMS eventhough they lost their semi-finals and 3rd and 4th placings on penalties.
So may I say, “Well done, BMS!” despite conceding nearly 20 goals in your last 3 matches that ended in draws, but which could have easily ended in losses in regulation time due to your weak defence during those 3 matches? ^^;
Yea. But BMS beat CH 4-1. So the “Champion” CH, could only score a single goal against a “weak” BMS defence? Oh c’mon. All your comments are “pro-CH’, which is extremely irritating to some other readers. Try being a little more fair to the other teams will ya?
“But BMS beat CH 4-1. So the “Champion” CH, could only score a single goal against a “weak” BMS defence?”
May I ask, did I ever say that the BMS defence was weak against CHS in that particular match?
Once again, people are putting words in my mouth! *sigh*
I’ve consistently said that the BMS defence was weak during those last 3 matches of their season, which was the MAIN reason they failed to qualify for the Final, in my opinion!
If the BMS defence was much stronger, I dare say they would have probably beat VS in the semi-final during regulation time, and possibly beat CHS in the Final.
“All your comments are “pro-CH’, which is extremely irritating to some other readers.”
I’m a fan of their 2011 ‘B’ Boys floorball team, so obviously my comments are generally “pro-CH”; would it make any sense for my comments to be anti-CH or even neutral? If my comments irritate some readers, then they’ll just have to learn to be patient, because I can also say that their comments are “extremely irritating” to me, but I’d rather not, because I have more fun posting the way I have been posting so far! xD
“Try being a little more fair to the other teams will ya?”
If you have managed to read ALL my comments, plus my messages in the Chat Box over the past few days, I have tried “being a little more fair” to both BMS and VS; in fact, I’ve even praised their attack and the skilfulness of some of their players.
But to be truly fair, flaws also have to be pointed out, right? Otherwise, it would not be fairness, but simply blind praise.
awww you must be from some weak floorball school to comment about bmss floorball. wells i understand even though i am from sgs i know how good they are no point commenting on them
“awww you must be from some weak floorball school to comment about bmss floorball.”
Okay then, would you like to guess what school? xD
lol haha oh yeah bms weak defence only appeared at the last few matches.
Victoria school’s line up:
Goal Keepers: Nasrulhaq, Ezra Taliv Mo
Line 1: Akmal Shaharudin #12, Riku Alatalo #83, Matthew Yong #47, Hadi #56
Line 2: Hamizan Ismail #28, Nicholas #19, Yusuf # 26, Henri #53
Line 3: Simon Fang (#?), Muhd Adib #27, Haziq (#3), Syahid #66
Thanks for all your updates, Flooballx.
Victoria school (#28) is hamizan ismail and i belive you should add 1 more to the goal scorers list which is (#47) matthew yong
Its not #17 that scored the 1st goal for victoria its #47
”Catholic High’s captain Darrell Er then added two more long-range goals to put his team 3-0 up and leave the Victoria supporters rather subdued.”
Darrell only scored 1. The third goal a pass by Darrell to the blind side of the keeper which Crenshawn finished.
And not
”The move paid off with Catholic High’s forward Ryan Cheng squaring for teammate Crenshawn Lim to score and maintain a more comfortable three-goal cushion.”
This was a save by the Victorian goalie.
Thanks for the update.