Western Wildcats men secure promotion in Lousada after seeing off Raca

Western only needed to avoid defeat against Slovakian champions Raca to confirm promotion at the EuroHockey indoor Club Challenge tournament in Lousada, but the Scottish champions did it in style with a 9-3 mauling to put the matter beyond doubt. And the catalyst was five goals from Fraser Moran…and that increased his tally for the tournament to 16 in their five games.

Congratulations are due to Fraser Moran who got the top goal scorer award while Gavin Sommerville picked up the best goalkeeper.

 

WESTERN 9 RACA (SLOVAKIA) 3

Western started this crucial contest without the services of striker Andrew McConnell and went behind in the first quarter through an open play strike from Raca`s Adrian Augustinic.

However, the Scottish champions entered the second quarter with goals in mind, captain Rob Harwood led from the front with an equaliser from open play, he repeated the dose three minutes later for a 2-1 lead and finally Callum Duke gave Western a two goal cushion with another field strike.

And 3-1 was the score at the interval. Western were on their way to promotion.

The result was effectively sealed with three goals inside as many minutes in the third quarter, Fraser Moran scored the fourth at a penalty corner, to be followed by Joe McConnell and then Moran again for a 6-1 advantage. The icing was slightly taken off the cake when Matej Jelacic added a second for the Slovakians.

A faint whiff of comeback entered the air when Augustinic added a third for Raca in the first minute of the final quarter but that was quickly dismissed by a hat-trick of open play goals from Fraser Moran inside five minutes to advance the score to 9-3 – and that`s how it finished.

After the game, Western`s coach Vishal Marwaha said: “After the disappointment of last night against Lousada we had to pick ourselves up for the game today. It was a very mature performance in an all or nothing game. Playing in Europe regularly has really helped the boys develop and prepare for games like this.”

On the absence of Andrew McConnell, Vishal said: “Andrew rolled his ankle after 13 minutes in the Lousada game and couldn`t play in the rest of the tournament.”

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