Another grey and chilly day saw the Aquas assemble to take on another U13 side. Unintimidated, they took control of the match almost from the start. Charlotte's centre passes were taken with practised precision, allowing Amy and Emilia to feed the ball consistently into our D, where Sienna and Emilia started ratcheting up the goals. When the ball did get down into the Fareham third, Erin's assertive defensive play and and key interceptions from Ella and Sophie in the D saved the situation repeatedly, allowing Swan to finish the quarter 9-4 up. Zahra came on as GD in the second quarter to tackle Fareham's very tall GA; however in this quarter Fareham started to fight back much more determinedly, and with an excellent shooter in their GS, cut Aqua's lead to four goals by half time.
The Aquas were not prepared to give in of course, and came out strongly in the third quarter, with Emilia moving to GK to strengthen the defence, and Amy and Erin's terrier-like determination much in evidence as they fought for every ball. Sienna's consistent shooting continuing unabated, Aquas increased their lead again to finish the third quarter 17-11 ahead. Fareham gave it everything they had in the final quarter, and created a number of scoring opportunities for themselves. When we did manage to get the ball down into our third, Izzy and Sienna worked well together in the D to grab a few more crucial goals, however, and Aquas finished the game well-deserved winners at 20-16, having never lost the lead.
We would like to thank Gwen for stepping in at the last minute to coach. She gave the girls every encouragement!
Team: Sienna, Erin, Charlotte (c), Emilia, Zahra, Sophie, Ella, Amy, Izzy
Player of the match: Erin