On Wednesday 19th October, ERGS Inter Team played their first match against a reasonably local rival – Fivemiletown.
This has always been a tight match and today saw it to be no different.
The girls were keen to get a win under their belts to start off the League on a strong footing – however, they knew it would be no picnic.
From the whistle, both teams came out strongly. Leah Irwin really dominated in the centre with Annabel Morrison, Eve Balfour and Emma Fawcett right there supporting her. With lovely arcing passes from Leah into the shooting circle, Eve and Maria were able to slot away their shots in the first quarter. This is not to say that Fivemiletown were in any way idle, they too were getting their passes into their circle just not as frequently thanks to Emma Fawcett, Lucy Carrothers and Anna Cairns, 4-1 ERGS at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter saw Fivemiletown attacking from the off with better ball into the circle. With a slight change in our defensive circle (Chloe Robinson coming on for Lucy), the girls were a bit rattled. Thanks to the mid-court coming together with our attackers however, we soon got back into a groove, stretching our lead to 10-4 by half-time.
The third quarter saw a few changes in the Fivemiletown team, but our girls were able for them. Tired legs on our side and some silly mistakes being made by both teams, made this a more difficult quarter to umpire. Although the scores increased, the distance between the two teams didn’t – 13-7.
As the team had goals in hand, I wanted to put on some of the rest of the squad. Jodie Thompson came on at Wing Defence, Annabelle Crawford came on at Goal Shooter and Lucy Carrothers was back at Goalkeeper. Despite the re-shuffle, the girls played seamlessly. The midfield play was fast, with footwork proving to be fabulous. Balls were kept in play by some ingenious handling, making for a really thrilling game to watch. Despite the Fivemiletown GD playing out of her skin, preventing shots on goal, we managed to sneak through her defences just enough times to increase our lead.
Final score 18-9 to ERGS
Squad:
- Lucy Carrothers
- Emma Fawcett
- Anna Cairns
- Leah Irwin
- Anabelle Morrison
- Eve Balfour
- Maria Bullock
- Chloe Robinson
- Jodie Thompson
- Lucie-Anne Abbott
- Annabelle Crawford
- Eva Howe
Thanks to all the girls for a cracking day’s Netball.
