Nanyang Poly defeat NUS to finish third in IVP floorball

Story by Wong Hong Yong/Red Sports. Pictures by Yvonne Yap/Red Sports.

Republic Polytechnic Sports Complex, Monday, January 25, 2010 – Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) emerged 4-2 winners in the clash for third in the Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic (IVP) Floorball Championship, defeating the National University Of Singapore (NUS) to recover some pride after narrowly missing out on the final.

NYP won the faceoff and immediately went on the attack with #77 (NYP) spraying the ball down the flank to Muhd Akid Bin Azhar (NYP, #18), who tried to attack but found himself marshalled tight by #15 (NUS).

NYP continued to impose themselves on the NUS players, but found it hard to breach a disciplined NUS defence. At the 13.45 min mark, Johnson Sivalingam (NYP, #16) pulled a nice drag shot from the centre of the court but the NUS goalie parried well. NUS seemed content to sit back and wait for a counter as they weathered the NYP storm.

There was some determined play coming from Jenmark Binay Sorreda (NYP, #10) as he tried a shot from the centre of the court which went just wide of goal. He then followed up and picked up a stray ball from the clearance that also went agonisingly wide of the goal.

Jenmark seemed to be boosted by his close attempts as he surges forward again to try a shot, but a goal was still not forthcoming.

At this point NYP were having the better possession for the majority of the match, but NUS coped well by constantly hassling the NYP players.

NUS soon worked up some nice attacks of their own. At the 8.10 min mark, #12 (NUS) opted to shoot when left unmark but his shot deflected off the NYP keeper’s helmet.

NUS however soon found themselves 1-0 down at 7.25 minute. Jenmark (NYP) managed to hold off the NUS defence, and with his back towards goal, he managed to drag a shot into goal with the NUS goalie blind.

NUS found new vigour after conceding as they managed a series of nice attacking forays. At 5.54 min, #99 (NUS) took the ball around goal and squared it to #15 (NUS), whose shot seemed destined for goal, only to see it denied by the NYP keeper’s leg.

At 4.19 min, #99 (NUS) managed another volley that flew just wide of the far post. NYP on the other hand seemed happy to play at their own pace whenever they held possession, and the score remained 1-0 to NYP after the first period.

NYP upped the physical tempo in the second period as they started to hassle the NUS players with stronger play. The NUS bench and players voiced their unhappiness at the constant body contacts and slashing by the NYP players, but their protest fell on deaf ears as the referees did not react.

At 4.05 min mark, Johnson picked up a pass from a Jenmark free hit and caught everyone off guard with a shot from within his own half that flew into the bottom right corner of the NUS goal, putting his side 2-0 up.

NYP scored again after their goalie initiated a fast break, allowing Muhd Haikal Bin Suhami (NYP, #8) to score easily. 3-0 to NYP, NYP continues to press in search of the 4th as more bodies start to fall. The period ended with the score line 3-0 in NYP’s favour.

The final quarter commenced with NUS pushing the limits of the NYP defense. A good counter by the NUS trio of #22, #21 and #26 nearly resulted in a goal but NUS #26 shot over the crossbar.

NYP placed themselves 4-0 up with Jenmark proving to be the creator as he brought the ball into the area and held off the NUS defence to set up a goal for #88 to slot it in. The NUS keeper was left stranded with his vision blocked.

Tensions then nearly hit the roof when NYP #88 almost started a fight after getting shoved to the ground by #27 (NUS).

#22 (NUS) scored from a good attack as he slotted in his rebound in the dying minutes after his initial shot was saved by the helmet of the NYP goalie.

The deficit was further reduced to 4-2 as #21 (NUS) picked up a horrible mistake by the NYP goalie to put in an easy goal. But it was too late to catch up with NYP who finished with a 4-2 victory to clinch the bronze medal.

N.B. If you know the names of the players featured in the photos, please let us know in comments section. We’ll update the captions. Thanks.

Please provide us the full lineups with jersey numbers so that we can update the story with names too. Thanks.