Hoops dominate Hurricanes

WARRACKNABEAL Hoops played the Horsham Hurricanes in Warrackna-beal on Saturday with clouds rolling in and a chilling breeze making play difficult.
As the teams took to the field it was noticed that the Hurricanes were missing a lot of key players, the major one being their goal keeper.
Horsham were able to field a team with replacements from the women’s side and also a helping hand from Dimboola.
The Hoops had possession of the ball from the start of the game with Shane Langman scoring the first goal in the first four minutes.
The second goal was a mirror of the first with Shane assisting Ethan Schilling, with about three minutes to go till half time, Langman fired up and scored the third goal of the game. Less than one minute later he was able to do the same move again and score the fourth goal of the game.
Darren Brown had a shot on goal but as the ball travelled through the D, a defender deflected the ball into the goal closing half time with a score of Hoops, five to Horsham, nil.
During the second half of the game Horsham attempted to fight back, but the Hoops were too strong right from the start. Darius Cosgrave had the first shot on goal but sent the ball flying over the top of the net.
Langman, playing alone in the forward line, was able to receive a clear pass from Darius and tap it in behind the keeper for the Hoops sixth goal.
Horsham with a spark of life was able to run the ball down the field and score with a brilliant back stick shot past Jordan “Stumpy” Williams for a good goal.
As the game progressed more shots were taken by Warracknabeal against the Horsham goal keeper with one brilliant goal from Paul “Chucky” Slater who watched the ball hit the keeper’s pads and as the ball bounced off the pads towards him, he lifted the ball over the defensive line into the back of the net scoring the Hoops seventh goal.
With about nine minutes left in the second half there was a penalty stroke called against Horsham, while both teams watched on, flicked the ball to the right of the keeper scoring goal number eight.
Langman was able run the ball into the D for a one on one challenge against the keeper, for the last goal of the game. He was able to tap the ball past the keeper for his fourth scoring shot and the Hoops’ ninth goal.
Final scores ended up being Warracknabeal Hoops, 9 d Horsham Hurricanes, 1.
Umpires votes went to Darren Brown, three; Shane Langman, two; Michael Clark and Darius Cosgrave one each.