IN a hotly-contested match that added some fire to a cold Bathurst day, St Pat's edged out Kinross-CYMS 3-2 in their women's Premier League Hockey meeting at the Cooke Hockey Complex on Saturday.
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A 1-all halftime score line was indicative of the opening 35 minutes, with the two young teams playing some exciting end-to-end hockey.
The blue and white were rewarded for some sharper offence in the second half but had to survive some strong periods from the visiting squad.
Pat's coach Brad Fulton was happy to see his team play with some added intensity across the final 35 minutes.
"We hit the post a couple of times and had a lot of the attack. We got bent out of shape a bit there in the first half which saw us going down. We made some changes at half-time, major structural adjustments, and you could see that the second half was a lot more open space for us," he said.
"In the first half we were chasing but in the second half we had the ball."
Kinross-CYMS were pushing their strikers further up the field as the match went on, catching out the St Pat's fullbacks at times and playing a part in the first goal for the Orange-based outfit.
Fulton says that same lack of focus can't go on beyond this match.
"The defence needs to be constantly paying attention as opposed to just watching," Fulton fired.
"The good thing though is that we decided to change our shape at half-time and everyone adapted perfectly. So it's good to know that you've got a few more systems up your sleeves with semi-finals coming up."
The match begin at a quick pace with neither team able to create any true momentum or strong periods of play.
Pat's got the best chance to make the scoreboard tick when, 10 minutes in, Kristy Ekert intercepted a pass and handed the ball off to Caitlin Davis. Davis' flick onto the goal ended up just left of the mark.
At the 15-minute mark Kinross-CYMS started gaining a little more possession and creating several dangerous runs along both wings but with no finish.
Orange goalkeeper Catherine Stapleton had an excellent match, a highlight being her two straight saves from point blank range at the 23-minute mark. The ball came out to Ekert after those saves but her shot thundered off the post.
After another save from Stapleton during a St Pat's penalty Kinross-CYMS brought the ball up the other end and caught the home side's defence outnumbered. Ally Thurn put her shot home to get the visitors up 1-0.
Just when it looked like the Orange side would carry a lead into the break Davis received the ball in the Kinross-CYMS circle in the final minute, spun off her defender and scored.
There was some extra string to the home side's attack in the second half as Madison Hall scored within the first minute.
In the face of several penalty corners against them and a string a close chances the Kinross-CYMS defence made life difficult for Pat's.
Pat's keeper Karen Fieldus made a brave save when caught in a two versus one situation but a resulting penalty corner let Ellen Van Hoek find a goal.
With 10 minutes to go Kathleen Messer made it 3-2 to Pat's when she flicked a shot home off a cross on the right wing.
BATHURST ST PAT'S 3 (Caitlin Davis, Madison Hall, Kathleen Messer) def KINROSS-CYMS 2 (Ally Thurn, Ellen Van Hoek)
