A tactical switch at the water break saw Ale House moving Tim Sulik to midfield and Trent Kielley to center half forward. As a result, the run of play started to become more balanced with both teams moving with some fluidity. Hopes of Ale House clawing back were further boosted when a Trinity line drive was courageously charged down by Alfredo “Fredo” Castillo. The sliothar broke loose to the left wing only for Trinity to lob it back in toward goal and after a mad scramble Rookie Matt Hooper sent the ball over the line to nudge Trinity further ahead. Spurred into action, Ale House began to bring the game to Trinity and soon after Steve “Jake” Jakubowski was taken down around the 20m line.
Despite 6 defenders on the line, he lashed the sliothar home to spark the Marauders. A few minutes later Sulik batted down a high ball at midfield, Theresa Spigel fed it back to Tim who sent a high ball goalward. Jakubowski grabbed it out of the air, stepped right, shot left, cuuuuullllllll, and we had a game on our hands. Two quick Trinity points aided by some nice work from Christian Neuenschwander, helped to stem the tide and stretched the lead back to six points and at the half the score stood Trinity 3-3 to Ale House 2-0.
The third quarter started where the second left off. An early Ale House 65 was cleared by keeper Ryan McCauley to the sideline, only for Ale House to recycle the sliothar back to Rebecca Miksch who stepped and hit a fine point, to narrow the gap back to 5 points. The Ale House half and full forwards started to rotate their positioning in an effort to further confuse the Trinity defense and gain an upper hand, but again Trinity responded. First, Trinity’s Jesse Rodriguez had a shot on goal denied before fine work by Joel Guinane and “Pinball” resulted in a another shot that could only be deflected over the bar for a point. With Miksch now launching puck-outs into the Ale House half forward line, the action reverted down the other end. Soon Kevin Hobbins hand-passed to Tim Suilk whose probing delivery downfield allowed a break on goal. The initial effort was saved but great hustle by Joe “Jaws” Jawson and Eric Hobbins saw the sliothar being forced over the goal line to make it a one score game at 3-4 to 3-1. And that was the way it remained as the quarter wound down, as despite additional forays by both teams, there was no additional scoring.
All to play for then as the final quarter got underway. An early point from Teddy Reutz edged Trinity further ahead, but Ale House’s “Jaws” quickly responded soloing down the right wing before unleashing a fine shot on goal, forcing Ryan McCauley to make a spectacular save. Both sides traded points, and midway through the period, the score stood at 3-6 to 3-2. Kevin Hobbins went down with an apparent cramp as both sides dug deep for the decisive score. Some fine teamwork between the Ale House midfield and forward lines was rewarded with another point and again the gap was reduced to a single score. The intensity ratcheted up a notch with Ale House now having the momentum and contesting every ball. As time started to wind down, Rebecca Miksch, Eric Hobbins, and Trent Kielley combined with some sweet passing to again spring Jakubowski loose. Moving right Jake slammed the sliotar into the bottom left corner to tie things up at 4-3 to 3-6. Less than two minutes remaining…………would there be a winner or were we headed for overtime? That question was quickly answered as Christian Neuenschwander and Sam Hogan linked up to pop Teddy Ruetz free who promptly deposited the game winner into the back of the net as time ran out.
Great game, great effort by two sides that will be a force to reckon with as the season progresses.