Post by Fiona Greer
Penguin Emperors played our second Championship playoff weekend in at Leeds university 13/14th December. We started the weekend with many players missing dues to work commitments and illness so the 8 players who did make it worked hard in both games and headed back to London having given it their all.
Saturday 13th December
Penguin vs Welsh wanderers
We broke our jinx of trailing after the first quarter to have an impressive 6-0 win. With some great team support, we went into the second quarter confident but the Wanderers came back at us and held our attacks and there was only one goal from the Penguin pit in the whole quarter. The third quarter was close again with a narrow lead 3-2 to penguin, Emma Christie scoring her first for the season in a last second shot making the most of our attack. Going into the fourth quarter we were starting to make more steals and Alex Andrews controlled the defence from pit D to help some quick counters and we scored a couple more good counter attacking goals. The team worked hard for each other, lots of assists and supportive team work. A great win and some needed points.
Final score; 14-2 Scorers; E.Christie (1), H.Boyd (3), F.Greer (5), E.Shaw (1), C.Martin (4).
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Sunday 14th December
Penguin vs Otter Lutra
Penguin came out guns blazing but Otter held our attack in what proved to be quite a physical game. Claire Martin got Penguin off to a perfect start scoring two strong goals from the arc. The second quarter was tough with a strong press holding our attack but both Julia Petchey and Fiona Greer managed to score from pit before being closed down. We were down 7-4 at the end of the second quarter and went into the third quarter knowing we had to keep working hard. It was a fast physical game and Otter were a little fresher and scored 2 more goals on the counter while our players were starting to run out of steam with only one sub. We went into the 4th quarter and gave it our all, Katie Collins made two tremendous one-on-one saves denying Otter any goals in the final quarter. With Julia Petchey scoring from distance to give Penguin one more goal we won the fourth quarter 1-0. Final score; 9-5 Scorers; F.Greer (1), J.Petchey (2) C.Martin (2).
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Well done ladies, the team work this weekend was fantastic. A few red faces at the end of the Sunday game, Katie Collins was outstanding! Thanks as ever to Shakey for coaching and to our supporters Joan Lake, Ella Greer and Fiona Shaw (Emma’s mum!).
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With a couple of vital points, its all to play for in Matlock, we need three wins out of three but with most players available and if we avoid to many mince pies we can do it.
Merry Christmas!