M1 Win 7-3 At Southgate To Go Second
By Colin Pike
Surbiton bounced back from last week's 3-2 home defeat to Holcombe to win 7-3 at Southgate on Saturday evening and move up to second in the Men's Hockey League Premier Division.
Struan Walker scored four goals as Surbiton joined leaders Hampstead & Westminster (with a goal difference of plus 8), Holcombe, Old Georgians and Wimbledon on nine points.
Surbiton, Holcombe and Wimbledon all have goal differences of plus 7, but Surbiton are second having scored 17 goals, ahead of Holcombe on 13 goals and Wimbledon on 11. Old Georgians have a goal difference of plus 5.
Southgate forced a penalty corner in the first minute, but Surbiton took the lead in the fourth minute, Walker clinically converting the visitors' first penalty corner.
Surbiton doubled their lead on the quarter hour, Ben Stevenson's angled pass from the right touched in by Ben Park.
Southgate halved the arrears in the 19th minute through Karan Sofat's hard strike which deceived James Mazarelo, but a minute later, Louis Gittens restored Surbiton's two goal advantage with a shot into the bottom corner.
By Half Time, Surbiton led 4-1, Walker converting another penalty corner with a powerful shot which deflected off a Southgate defender into the roof of the net.
Southgate struck again five minutes into the third quarter, Teague Marcano carrying the ball into the 23 before unleashing an unstoppable shot past Mazarelo from the left of the circle to reduce Surbiton's advantage to 4-2.
In the 45th minute, Walker completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot, sending Anton van Loggerenberg the wrong way as the ball was dispatched to the goalkeeper's left to put Surbiton 5-2 ahead.
Four minutes later, Gittens was on target again, his powerful shot rebounding off the backboard and careering off the sideline as Southgate trailed 6-2.
Walker's fourth goal of the match came with the last play of the third quarter as Surbiton's penalty corner routine paid dividends yet again as Surbiton entered the fourth quarter in supreme command with a 7-2 lead.
After a three quarter goal-fest, it was perhaps surprising that there was only one goal in the fourth quarter, Kwan Browne scoring Southgate's third goal with a penalty stroke into the bottom right corner in the final minute, leaving just enough time to restart before the final whistle blew.
The match can be watched via the Southgate Hockey Club channel on You Tube here
Surbiton are at home to Wimbledon next Saturday (14 October) push back 6 pm.
Hampstead & Westminster went top courtesy of their 4-2 win at Oxted. Matt Guise-Brown, Stephen Kelly, Sam French and Kei Kaeppeler scored for Hampstead with Peter Jarvis and Chris Porter replying for Oxted.
Wimbledon beat East Grinstead 2-0 at home, Connor Greentree and Rory Patterson both scoring in the first 25 minutes.
Reading finally ended a run of 12 successive defeats (including last season's League Finals Pool) by winning 3-2 at the University of Nottingham. Tom Minall and Nick Catlin gave Reading a 2-0 lead but Ed Brice and Louis Tipper both scored to bring Nottingham level. A dramatic last minute penalty corner conversion by Ben Mackey gave the Berkshire club all three points.
Cardiff & Met suffered their second 4-1 home defeat of the season at the hands of Beeston. Gareth Griffiths scored twice with Jamie Rawlings and Henry Croft also on target for the visitors. Scott Rawlings netted Cardiff's consolation goal.
Holcombe and Old Georgians are both in Barcelona having reached the Euro Hockey League KO8 stage.
Old Georgians qualified for the FINAL8 with a come from behind 3-2 win over Waterloo Ducks in KO8. Victor Charlet put Waterloo Ducks ahead twice with penalty corner conversions, however Sam Ward levelled the first time from open play, Alan Forsyth equalised the second time with a penalty stroke and Chris Proctor scored the winning goal with eleven minutes remaining. Old Georgians saw off a late bout of pressure from the Belgian club to secure their place at Easter.
Holcombe weren't quite as lucky, going down 1-0 to hosts Real Club de Polo, the only goal coming after just 29 seconds as Guillermo Fortuno forced the ball home from a rebound.
Surbiton Men's second team beat Hampstead & Westminster's second team 3-1 at Sugden Road. Ben Hanson put Surbiton ahead in the third minute before James Sutcliffe levelled a minute before half time. Two penalty corner conversions from Scott Jones in the 42nd and 53rd minutes lifted Surbiton up to second in the Conference East, a point behind leaders Guildford, but Ipswich and Spencer meet on Sunday and either side can move above Surbiton.