Week 4 ICC & JIC wrap up

Week 4 of the Indoor Club Championships and Junior Indoor Challenge commenced on Friday night, with the Under 14 Girls & Boys.

Under 14 Girls

There was a total of 20 matches played across the weekend at MSC Parkville and Monash University with 174 goals scored, and the leading goal scorer going to Ruby Gorton from Footscray Hockey Club with 22 goals.

With the top 2 teams from each of Pool A and Pool B progressing into the Semi-Final matches, it was Footscray v TEM in SF1 and Waverley v Brunswick in SF2. While the rest of the teams were placed into Pool C where they played a series of cross-over matches to determine finishing positions 5-8.

In SF1, TEM put the pressure on 1^st seed Footscray early, going up 2-0 behind two goals from Anika Selvaratnam. But right before half-time, leading goal scorer Ruby Gorton scored a crucial goal to shift the momentum to Footscray’s side heading into the 2^nd half. This momentum proved to be crucial, as Footscray then went on to score 5 unanswered goals, including 4 goals in 3 minutes, which saw them advance to the Grand Final.

In SF2, Waverley struck first, with Ruby Howe scoring in the 6^th minute. This was then followed up with Aaliayah Koelmeyer converting on a penalty corner putting Waverley up 2-0. Brunswick quickly erased this lead with Tess Barrett and Molly Noonan scoring back-to-back off penalty corners, and things were level heading into the 2^nd half. Early in the second half, Aaliayah earned a penalty stroke and reclaimed the lead for Waverley, but this was answered by Brunswick’s Molly Noonan locking the contest at 3-all. Things remained scoreless for a while, until an outburst from Gabriella Pezzimenti, who scored 2 goals in as many minutes for Brunswick, putting them up 5-3. This lead proved insurmountable and Brunswick went on to win 6-4 and set up an all Pool A Grand Final.

Having drawn in their original pool matches, this was sure to be a good one, and it was Footscray to answer the call first, with none other than Ruby Gorton scoring for her club early in the first half. But again, the scoring prowess of the Brunswick team saw their quick fire offense put away 2 goals within a minute, with Cara Gauci and Andreja Mohar responsible for the goals. As the 2^nd half started with Brunswick up 2-1, they continued their groove, as Cara notched her second goal for the match in the 21^st minute, putting her team up 3-1. However, it would be Ruby Gorton again for Footscray, reducing the lead to just one for Brunswick with 10 minutes to play. As time ticked down though, it was all Brunswick on the offensive, winning multiple penalty corner and converting on their final 3, and claiming the championship with a 6-2 win.

The final standings were as follows:

Under 14 Boys

There was a total of 38 matches played across the three days at MSC Parkville and Monash University, with 324 goals scored, and the leading goal scorer going to Rory Thorpe from Hawthorn Hockey Club, with 24 goals.

With the top 2 teams from each of Pool A and Pool B progressing into the Semi-Final matches, it was Brunswick scrapping past Mentone 5-4 in SF1 and Hawthorn defeating Waverley 4-2 in SF2. While the rest of the teams playing cross-over matches to determine finishing positions 5-12.

It was a battle of the undefeated teams in the Grand Final, as both Hawthorn and Brunswick were 6-0 heading into this match. The two proved incredibly evenly matched, as it was back and forth with no goals scored until 14 minutes into the match, when Brunswick’s Jude Barrett finally netted one putting Brunswick up 1-0 heading into the 2^nd half. Brunswick would then earn a penalty stroke early into the 2^nd half, which was converted by William Tracy, extending Brunswick’s lead to 2-0, and putting them within grasping distance of the Championship. However, Hawthorn would not let it happen that easy, as Rory Thorpe would score two unanswered goals, with the final one coming in the dying minutes of the match, to send the game to shoot-outs. In shoot-outs the contests remained at a deadlock, as it took until the 14^th shot for a winner to decided. It was Rory Thorpe scoring the winning goal in the shoot-outs sudden death, and in one of the best Grand Finals the ICC has seen, it was Hawthorn Hockey Club who would end up victorious and call themselves Champions.

The final standings were as follows:

Thank you to Stuart Westmore for his time this weekend taking photos of the event!  Go visit @hockeyvictoriaofficial and @skwhockeypics on Instagram to see our players in action!

View the full photo album here.

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A huge thank you to all of the club administrators, team managers, coaches, players, officials and supporters that were involved in these events across the weekend!

To check out all of the results from the weekend, please use the following links:

Under 14 Girls

Under 14 Boys

A huge thank you to our dedicated officials for their tireless work across the weekend. These events truly would not have been possible without you all. A special mention to the following for their appointments:

Under 14

The action concludes this weekend (Mar 1, 2, 3) with the U16 Boys & Girls ICC! Head to Altius for fixtures & results, and be sure to keep an eye our social channels for updates.