Round 3 Salters Hire Premier League

A brilliant tomahawk strike into the roof of the net from Oscar Pritchard has ensured the points were shared between DiamondBacks and University.

Goals from Ben Read and James Dick had the Students well placed at 2-1 up in the final term, with DiamondBacks goalkeeper Grant Woodcock making a string of important saves.

The Maroons continued to carve out chances to add to Josh Hine’s earlier strike but appeared to miss penalty corner specialist Max Johnstone at the head of the circle.

That left it to Pritchard to drive into the attacking circle from midfield and unleash a thunderbolt under the crossbar to square the ledger.

Post-match University coach Read questioned whether his squad were currently up to the mark of being considered a title threat.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do to be considered contenders and today proved that” Read said.

“Overall, I think DiamondBacks were more disciplined than us in every area of the game, where they played a better team game and I think they thoroughly deserved the draw.”

But the news was positive, as Keenan Johnson closes in on a return to the pitch, Oscar Sproule played his first competitive minutes in over three months after a hamstring injury.

“Boss (Sproule) back was massively influential and despite only playing half a game, the impact he has was evident for all to see.”

Canterbury continued their dream start to the season, smashing Derwent 4-0 and unveiling new signing Ruben Hoey with a goal and best afield performance.

Derwent defensive linchpins Ewan Vickery and Magnus McCausland were resolute but could do little as the Lions found further goals from Tyler McDonald, Lachie Rogers and Ben East at key intervals.

The Lions are joined with a 3-0 start to the season by North-West Graduates, who overcame a 0-2 scoreline after nine minutes to defeat OHA 6-3.

James Thomas crashed two penalty corner flicks into the backboard within three minutes to stun the defending champions, before order was restored through Oli Stebbing’s hat-trick of set pieces.

Harvey Bessell had started the fightback and added another, alongside teammate Tom Dobbie.

Argentinian forward Nai Moreno officially announced herself to the women’s Premier League hockey competition after her two goals put DiamondBacks to the sword, earning University a 4-2 win.

After impressing in the Students State Cup title, Moreno was unable to find the net in the first five halves of the season, but her class came to the fore as University came from 2-1 down to clinch victory.

A Philly Bridley tomahawk had broken the deadlock after five minutes, before it was cancelled out when Ruth Whittaker touched home at the far post on the cusp of half-time.

Moreno got her debut Premier League goal with a well taken penalty corner flick after forty minutes, before DiamondBacks struck back through Kara Gill’s set piece put-back.

But Moreno said “what you can do, I can do better” in providing an instant response with a composed finish that oozed class and personality.

Amy Chamberlain, a tireless worker in midfielder, iced the game for the Students with a penalty corner rebound to bring a smile to co-coach Warren Clarke’s face post-game.

“It was pleasing that our structure and ball distribution choice from defence with Belen D’Esposito was outstanding, creating many opportunities for our forward in space,” Clarke said.

“The poise of Nai Moreno was exceptional, and her two quality goals are signs of things to come, but also the younger cohort are showing maturity well beyond their years and starting to thrive off the ball of some very dynamic ball movement from our Argentinian contingent.”

“But the consistency of performance across all positions for the entire four quarters was extremely pleasing.”

A devastating knee injury to Emily Newbold soured a hard fought 1-0 win for North-West Graduates against title rivals OHA.

With Graduates leading thanks to Josie Crowden’s scrambled finish, Newbold went down awkwardly in the attacking circle and heard her knee ‘pop,’ according to coach Alex Mainwaring.

“We understand she'll need a scan next week to understand the full extent, but were all hoping for positive news because she's been integral since re-joining Premier League and we'll rally around her," Mainwaring said.

In the final match, Canterbury banked three points with a 9-0 defeat of Derwent, with Kenworthy sisters Jemma and Romani contributing five goals.

Sarah Wilson-Haffenden also got in on the act with a brace, while teammates Chloe White and Sophie Allerdice also scored.