For the best part of an hour Wanderers looked set to break their men’s Premier League Hockey duck at Orange Hockey Centre on Saturday afternoon, and do so by taking the monumental scalp of reigning champions Lithgow Panthers.
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But it wasn’t to be, almost entirely because of Taylor Dolbel.
The Panthers ace scored a quick-fire hat-trick at the back end of Saturday’s round seven clash, breaking Wanderers’ hearts and clinching a 3-1 victory that keeps his side sitting second behind Bathurst Souths with a game in hand.
Caiden Reddan found the back of the net in just the eighth minute to give Wanderers an early 1-0 lead, a margin that maintained through half time, until midway through the second period.
That’s when Dolbel struck, and struck again, then for good measure struck once more.
He scored the equaliser in the 55th minute and then found the back of the net again in the 57th to put his side in front 2-1 with 13 to go.
Although Wanderers created chances to return to level pegging they couldn’t finish, and Dolbel drove one last dagger in in the 66th minute, completing his hat-trick and securing his side’s come-from-behind victory.
While the result is a disappointing one for Wanderers and they remain cemented to the bottom of the table, the performance was an encouraging one and proves the side’s improvement.