CHILL BATTLE IT OUT IN THE RAIN

CANBERRA CHILL BATTLE IT OUT IN THE RAIN

The Canberra Chill returned to home soil for the first One Active Hockey One League Pride Round.

With the forecast looking quite grey the sides were preparing for the wet weather for the second week in a row.

The men opened the campaign against the Brisbane Blaze in drizzly conditions with the Blaze taking advantage and opening the scoring in the first minute of the game. The Chill men fought back with a lot of pressure and field advantage but were unable to find the net in the first half. The Blaze kept their foot on the gas with goals in the 24^th minute and a double in the 25^th minute. Jay Macdonald was ruled out of the match in the first half after a significant injury. The side played again with one less rotation for the remainder of the match, but they fought back with Jake Staines finding the net in the 53^rd minute and the Ben Staines with a stroke and Aiden Dooley with the shootout conversion to get 3 on the board. Blaze kept their goal scoring performance with 3 more goals in the second half. Final score 7-3 to the Brisbane Blaze.

The women followed on in the very wet conditions before the clouds let off, and the blue sky peeped through. The women were out to play with Amy Lawton scoring from a rebound corner save in the 4^th minute to get the girls on the board early. The Blaze fought back but the Chill were cool, calm and collected battling all the way to the end. Blaze looked like they had scored near the end to level it before the goal was overturned. Alyssa Smith with another great game in the net and the talent from the women across the pitch was impressive to watch and their first full points on the ladder. Final score 1-0 to the Canberra Chill.

The sides head in to the bye week and then two away games before they return to the EPC Solar Hockey Stadium on Friday 21^st November at 6:30pm.