ENGLAND Under-18 Girls were crowned UK School Games Champions after they secured a third straight victory at the Wales Institute of Sport in Cardiff, beating Scotland 5-3 last Sunday.
The team has gone from strength to strength over the three-day event, culminating in a confident victory over a Scotland side who were also unbeaten in the Tournament until they faced England.
“We’re delighted how the team has welded together in such a short space of time,” said assistant coach Charlie Seecomb. “They deserve every credit for what has been achieved, not just from a results perspective but for the way they have developed patterns of play.”
The victory began in the fifth minute with Bradford Wakefield’s Rosie Tootell scoring from a penalty corner, striking home into the bottom right corner, and the very next minute their lead was doubled with Georgia Rawlinson scoring the first of her four goals, again from a penalty corner.
Rawlinson’s second goal came from open play on 18 minutes, and although Scotland pulled back a goal through Heath Elder just before half time through a penalty corner, England were still in command.
Rawlinson secured her hat-trick on 50 minutes as England went 4-1 ahead, but Scotland hit back seven minutes later, Anna Thompson scoring the goal from another penalty corner.
Rawlinson’s fourth goal came on 64 minutes from open play. The initial shot was saved by the Scotland goalkeeper, but the ball fell loose, and the Firebrands player lifted it over the stranded keeper to bag a fourth goal.
Scotland attacked desperately, and Thompson added a third for Scotland in the final minute, but it was no more than a consolation as England were celebrating a matter of seconds later.
England Boys U18 could not match the achievement. Although they beat Scotland 8-1 in the final match the loss to wales earlier in the competition cost them the gold medal.
We’re extremely pleased with the performance,” said team manager Steve Floyd. “We played much better today than in the other games, and really took our chances.
It’s disappointing that we didn’t do that earlier in the competition. That cost us the gold medal, but we’re pleased with our performance today.”
No comments:
Post a Comment