Top spot in the Vancouver Island Field Hockey Association’s competitive division changed hands Sunday at UVic, but most of the excitement came in the middle game of the day.
Down 3-2 at the half to the always dangerous Tigers, who carried much of the play in the first two quarters, the Victoria League Selects put together a big second half and overtook the men in black to post a 5-4 victory.
Derrick Norton and Sanjiv Galhon scored a pair of goals each for the Selects (2-3-2), while Kai Lawrence bagged a single.
The win spoiled a brilliant three-goal performance from the Tigers’ Josh Brown, whose first two goals came off lightning-quick spinaround reverse stick shots. Parm Sahota scored the other goal for Tigers (3-4-0).
Some apparent confusion late in the fourth quarter, with Tigers scrambling to get the 5-5 goal, ultimately took away the team’s last-ditch momentum.
A Tigers defender who had been issued a green card and a two-minute suspension with just under two minutes to play, stepped back onto the field well before his time was up and was involved in an attacking play. Play was whistled down and he was sent back off, while the Tigers’ captain was handed a yellow card for the team playing with too many men.
The late game of the day saw Rebels 1 (4-2-2) down a shorthanded Vikes side 5-1 to leapfrog ahead of UVic atop the competitive division.
Johnny Jacoby notched a pair of goals in the win, while singles came from Owen Dahl, Ricky Kong and Gavin O’Halloran. Chase Martin scored for the Vikes (4-4-0).
The recreation division game to start the day saw Hawks pad their lead with a 5-1 win over Marauders. Still undefeated at 4-0 to start the season, Hawks got goals from Gurcharn Athwal, Bobby Virk, Amit Dillon, Vardeep Gill and Shawn Kalar, while Kirn Khaira tallied for the Marauders.
Next weekend’s games open with Marauders taking on Rebels 2 at 10:30 a.m., followed by Tigers vs. Rebels 1 at noon and Selects vs. Vikes at 1:30 p.m.