Confederates' women's Premier League Hockey campaign came to an end in Saturday's minor semi-final at Lithgow, where they were unable to match it with the powerhouse Panthers and suffered a 4-2 defeat to bow out of the title race.
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Panthers were dominant throughout and shot to a 4-nil lead by half-time through Amelia Leard's double along with goals from Clare Bosman and Emily Thompson, and while Confederates rallied in the third and fourth quarters they had too much work to do.
India Draper and Millah Allcorn both found the back of the net following the main break and the Orange side fought hard to reel Panthers in further, but the Lithgow side held them out to win through to next weekend's preliminary final against Bathurst St Pat's.
"I thought our intensity today was a lot better than it has been over the last couple of weeks," Panthers coach David Marshall said.
"Today we made the most of our chances I thought our first half was outstanding. [Confederates put a lot more pressure on us (in the second half), I thought they stepped it up a notch and did play very well, obviously they scored two goals and we didn't score any in that second half.
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Despite the 4-2 loss Confederates captain Ellen Warner said she was proud of her young side's effort, in just their second finals appearance since re-entering the competition in 2012.
"I think we really came back in the third quarter which was really amazing and we were so strong still from being 4-nil behind," she said.
"Those two goals really lifted us up, I think we definitely scared them in that last half that's the beauty of our team we never give up. We just kept going, kept playing and kept fighting."
"We're so lucky to play with what is like a family, we see each other every week and get a long so well, we really want to work for each other and we've been here for each other week in and week out."
- LITHGOW PANTHERS 4 (Amelia Leard 2, Claire Bosman, Emily Thompson) def CONFEDERATES 2 (India Draper, Millah Allcorn)
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