Sunday (21st February 2016) saw the long-awaited match between Leapoole and Grasshopper.
Grasshopper were fast out of the traps in the first quarter and took an early five goal lead. However, Leapoole's sluggish start began to dissipate, as they capitalised on a couple of Grasshopper errors in attack, and turned the ball over. The first quarter was very closely contested, with Grasshopper leading it until just before the end, when Leapoole shot steadily to go one goal in front - the score 14-15 in Leapoole’s favour. The second quarter followed, with Leapoole capitalising with some good attacking play, which Grasshopper were unable to contain and by the end of the second quarter, Grasshopper trailed 22-30. At half time, Coach Anne Melling made no changes and Grasshopper went out with renewed energy for the third quarter. Unfortunately, they were still unable to contain the Leapoole attackers, whose shooters were consistently accurate. Grasshopper’s opposition pulled further away as the quarter went on by the end of the period, were leading 33-48. The final quarter saw Amy Brennan come off as C and Hannah Wale take her place; Donna Osborn moved from GA to WA, with Katie Long coming in as GA; Laura Scigliano came off as GD, with Megs Palmer taking her place and Sarah Barbour coming on as GK - to match the height of the Leapoole GS. Whilst Grasshopper did manage to stem the flow of Leapoole goals somewhat, they were still unable to match the opposition’s scoring totals of the previous three quarters. In the end Leapoole ran out eventual winners by 39-63. Hopefully, Grasshopper will have the chance to turn next weekend's meeting with Leapoole into a win - as the two teams meet again for their re-arranged match that was postponed earlier in the season.
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Grasshopper had a must win game today (7th February) against Nottingham Knights. Grasshopper’s first centre was unfortunately turned over – so not the start they wanted - and by the end of the first quarter, in spite of some solid defending by GD Laura Scigliano and GK Megs Palmer, they were losing 7-10.
The second quarter saw Coach Anne Melling take off Hannah Wale and bring on Laura Stokes at WA. However, despite the change, Nottingham Knights continued their consistent conversion of shots, whilst the Grasshopper shooters converted fewer goals. By half time, Grasshoppers were trailing 14-21. At half time, Coach Anne Melling made further changes at the attacking end, taking off GS, Chloe McMakin, moving Donna Osborn to GS, and bringing on Katie Long as GA. This change did make a difference and the third quarter score was 10-11, with Nottingham Knights having scored just one more goal. The same team line-up was retained for the final quarter and Grasshoppers made a determined effort to catch up. Unfortunately, all they could do was maintain the closeness of the score for that quarter, losing it once more by 10 goals to 11. The final score was Grasshopper 34-43 Nottingham Knights. Congratulations to Player of the Match Megs Palmer, playing GK. This truly was a game of two halves.
Falcons won the first centre pass and then managed to turn over the next few Grasshopper’s centre passes through some solid defensive work as Grasshoppers tried to force the ball into the circle to their tall GS. However, Grasshoppers pulled back well and at the end of the first quarter the score was only 12-15 to Falcons. The second quarter saw Falcons pull further ahead, with Grasshoppers needing to adjust their tactics to get the ball into their shooters in the circle. By half time the score was 20-26. At the break Coach Anne Melling brought on Becs Smith at WA but left everyone else in situ. When the game restarted, Grasshoppers began to pull back and had a real purple patch in the third quarter. The Grasshoppers defence began to pressurise the Falcons shooters even more and matched Falcons goal for goal. Grasshoppers won the third quarter 10-9. In the final quarter, it was nip and tuck, and very close. Grasshoppers' defence piled on the pressure in Falcon’s attackers' circle, cutting down their scoring rate really well. Once again, Grasshopper won this quarter (8 goals to 6) but it wasn't enough to win the game – Grasshoppers losing out by 4 goals. Despite the loss the score was enough to give Grasshoppers a very valuable point. |
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