Following round seven play across Sunday afternoon at the Shepparton Regional Hockey Complex, the Smurf Turf entertained both A-grade men’s match-ups with Mooroopna meeting Echuca Moama, while the Shepparton derby ensued between Strikers and SYC.
Shepparton’s dominant Strikers side has been used to having things on its own terms in recent years, but there was none of that in Sunday’s meeting.
Of course, Strikers playing coach Xavier McBain continued his regularly scheduled red-hot form with a hat-trick, which is typically just about enough to get his side over the line.
After all, having played in five games this season for three hat-tricks and a bag of four. Always a handy tool to have.
Pushing and pushing was the name of SYC’s game, though, and braces for Nathan Greig and fill-in Dante Tait brought home the points in a thrilling 4-3 win.
SYC coach Ryan Mackenzie was exuberant in relishing a rare triumph.
“It was a pretty incredible result,” Mackenzie said.
“It had been many years since we’d had victory over Strikers, but it just goes to show the resilience of the club.
“With a couple of mid-season pick ups, we’ve been using training to try and come together and we had much better passing and penetration for our forward craft.
“From a coaching point of view, it made me incredibly proud of the guys.”
For SYC, it wasn’t so much about containing the likes of McBain as simply overpowering him — and the results bore that out.
“I play a fair bit of hockey in Melbourne with Xavier, so I was able to play on a few of his very minor weaknesses,” Mackenzie said.
“It meant a lot to the club to come away with the win.
“I reckon when we have our full team on the park, as we did on the weekend, it can show what a great team we’re capable of being.
“When we’re all available, we can be quite a club.”
The result leaves both teams at 5-2 with five games remaining, setting up a genuine neck-and-neck tussle ahead of finals.
In the other A-grade men’s result earlier in the day, Echuca Moama rode a pair of goals each from Nigel Berryman and Troy Kenny to nab its third win of the season, beating Mooroopna 6-2 and further enhancing the gap on its bottom-ranked adversaries.
The two frontrunners were again successful in the women’s draw, with Echuca Moama maintaining its perfect campaign courtesy of a 2-0 win over Benalla, while Strikers outclassed SYC 3-0 in the local clash.
