PARKES United right-half Denise Gersbach single-handedly brought Kinross-CYMS back to earth in Saturday’s women’s Premier League Hockey clash at the Orange Hockey Complex.
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Kinross-CYMS secured their second win of the season last week, and entered the half-time break 1-nil down on Saturday, after dominating the back of end of the opening stanza.
However, in a man-of-the-match performance, Gersbach found the back of the net in the 47th, 55th and 65th minutes to put paid to any thought of back-to-back victories for the hosts, with Parkes eventually running out 5-2 victors.
“The scoreline doesn’t really reflect how close the game was,” Kinross-CYMS coach Pete Shea said.
“It was a very good game, and to get that kind of result against one of the best teams in the competition proves we certainly aren’t out of our depth.”
Parkes dominated the opening exchanges of the match, camping in Kinross-CYMS’ half. The hosts were unable to withstand the unrelenting Parkes pressure, with Marcia Scally opening the scoring in the 13th minute.
Parkes created several more opportunities, but through stout defence and several brilliant saves from Kinross-CYMS’ goalkeeper Ally Olding, the deficit remained at one going into the break.
The hosts began to control the midfield in the second period, but two short-corners against the run of play allowed Gersbach her first, and then her second eight minutes later.
Kinross-CYMS fired back almost immediately, reducing the deficit through Mel Woods, and when Madie Smith scored just three minutes later, taking the score to 3-2 with 20 minutes remaining, a miracle looked possible.
However, the hosts tired, Gersbach slotted her third, and Louise Hawken latched on to a beautiful ball from Sarah Melhuish to score Parkes’ fifth, four minutes from full-time.
“We scored a couple of goals against a great defensive team, which was encouraging,” Shea said.
We defended resolutely for a long period of the game, we’re just struggling a bit to put it all together with some consistency.
Parkes coach Aaron Hupputz said he was pleased with the win, but scolded his players for “switching off”.
“We have that 10-minute period in every game where we just let teams back into it,” he said.
But, “We’re playing how we’re training. We were a bit disappointed to not score a few more, considering the opportunities we created, but we haven’t been creating those opportunities in previous games, so that’s positive.”
PARKES UNITED 5 (Denise Gersbach 3, Marcia Scally, Louise Hawken) def KINROSS-CYMS 2 (Mel Woods, Madie Smith).
