Republic Poly see off Temasek Poly’s challenge in POL-ITE Girls’ Floorball Championship

Story by REDintern Farah Alsagoff. Pictures By Vanessa Lim/Red Sports.

Republic Polytechnic Sports Complex, Friday, 23 October, 2009 – Republic Polytechnic (RP) maintained their composure to defeat Temasek Polytechnic (TP) 3-1 for their second win of the Polytechnic-Institute of Technical Education (POL-ITE) Girls’ Floorball Championship.

RP opened the scoring with a simple shot by Dai Yi Wen (#7) to make it 1-0. They continued on the offensive with Siti Khadijah (#10) taking a shot inside the slot area, only to see it blocked.

Loo Hui Yan (#19) took the onus for the rebound but her shot hit TP's keeper Madura Asmawiya McCormack's (#1) helmet and as a ‘pop’ ricocheted off the walls of the hall.

The second period saw TP come close to equalizing when Maria Chia (#17) passed the ball to Sarah Atan (#11) inside the slot area. Maria's pass was too fast for Sarah and she missed connecting.

Another heart-stopping moment came when RP's Reena Wong (#8) intercepted Madura's throw at ¾ court. TP defenders were quick to step up, to force Reena's shot off-target.

In end-to-end action, TP almost conceded when a player passed the ball back to her teammate in front of the goal. The ball deflected off the player's stick and lobbed precariously near the goal line with an RP player nearby. Fortunately, Madura grabbed the ball.

TP ´s Jowie Tan (#16) then found Tania Cher Ting (#12) unmarked and ready to shoot in front of RP's goal. Tania's hesitant drag shot though, hit the top corner side-post, much to the dismay of her teammates and the crowd.

The crowd became increasingly twitchy, seeing how the game could go either way. TP finally found their equalizer when Jowie won the ball in RP's slot area in front of the goalpost. With just a lob over RP's keeper Afiqah Hanafi (#1) at 36.18, the score was now 1-1.

RP pursued their attacks and were rewarded moments later. Marie Denisse (#4) dribbled along the right sideboard and although TP keeper Madura stepped up to cover her angle, Denisse found a way to score from an exceptionally acute angle with a wrist shot to give RP a 2-1 lead.

After play resumed from the face-off, TP continued to apply pressure with Sarah dribbling along the right sideboard and making a superb pass to teammate Jowie inside the slot area. Unfortunately, Jowie was not able to score.

RP's Denisse then almost scored again but her drag shot from half court hit the crossbar of the TP goal.

In the dying minutes of the match, TP's Maria got sent off for a high stick, and RP's power play was immaculate.

Numerous close shots by Nur Atiqah Hamdan (RP, #62) and Sheryl Wee (RP, #22) made hearts skip. Then TP made an error when Karen jumped to stop a high ball. RP were awarded a free hit in front of the goal, and before TP even had time to blink, the ball had passed TP keeper Madura and nestled in the back of the goal.

TP protested, but to no avail, and with less than a minute on the clock, there was no coming back for TP as they went down 3-1.

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. Thanks!