IVP Floorball (Men): Temasek Poly defeat hosts Republic Poly 3-0 to enter final

Story by REDintern Ethan Lou. Pictures by REDintern Olivia Lee

Republic Polytechnic Sports Complex, Friday, January 21, 2011 — Temasek Polytechnic (TP) defeated Republic Polytechnic (RP) 3-0 in their semi-final clash of the Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic (IVP) Men’s Floorball Championship.

The first period saw TP draw first blood, then maintaining that one-point advantage through a goalless second period where the only highlight for the crowd seemed to be when Tan Yi Ru (TP #52) broke his stick.

The pace of the third period was visibly faster as both teams jostled for supremacy. However, the period was far from even. TP gained the upper hand just thirty seconds into the third period through a goal by Muhammad Hidayat Bin Mat Rahim (TP #16). Two minutes later, Muhammad Hidayat scored again, bringing the score up to 3-0 in favour of TP and sealing their route to the final, sending hosts RP out of contention for gold.

“It feels good. Our goal was to go to the final at least, so it feels good that the whole team managed to do what we have set our targets on,” said a satisfied TP coach Filip Dahldren.

When asked about his team’s weaknesses, Filip said, “Defensively, we didn’t let in a single goal, so we looked quite solid defensively, (but) we still made a lot of individual mistakes and we’ve got to score more goals. That’s our problem. It’s been our problem the whole tournament, but today it was enough with three.”

Speaking on behalf of his team, TP captain Muhammad Faris Bin Rusli expressed satisfaction on their victory and hope for their upcoming match against ITE.

“It feels great. It was the first time TP ever got through the semi-finals or even go to the final. So we can’t wait to bring home the gold medal. We did great. We can do better no matter what.”

Muhammad Faris also observed RP were not as strong as before.

“I find that they (RP) are getting weaker, sorry to say. The past few tournaments they were strong, now they are a bit weak. I think with proper training and more training or something they would get better. Through my past experience, they were a team that was hard to beat and then this year, we proved them wrong.”