By RICHARD PHILIP
A five-goal haul by player-coach Luke McMahon has rocketed the Comets to a stunning 6-2 victory over an under-strength Waratah Bobcats in round three of the Men’s Hardcourt Hockey League, at Barrie Smith Hockey Fields at Murwillumbah on Saturday.
The shock win puts the new Central Comets on nine points, on top of the ladder ahead of Kingscliff Stingers and Waratah Bobcats on six and East Coast Sharks on three.
Bobcats, who have featured in the grand final for the past three decades, were without several key players due to a wedding and had no answer to the Comets’ forward fire-power led by McMahon.
The player-coach McMahon was on fire, scoring five of the team’s six goals while Waratah’s only scoring shot came in the “power-play” period from a shot by captain Tim Willis – earning them double points.
The other game in the Hardcourt hockey league saw the competition’s other newcomer, the East Coast Sharks, proving too good for the Kingscliff Stingers, winning 4-2.
Kingscliff was also down three key players, who were at the same wedding as the Waratah guys, but this should take nothing away from the Sharks’ first win of the season with two goals to Johnny Roy. Johnny, an import from Scotland, is just starting to make his mark on this competition.
Goals to Blake Wotherspoon and Sean Read put the game out of reach for the Kingscliff Stingers, who were once again very flat in attack and loose in defence.
Their goals came via Marcus Holt and Chris Faye.
Stand-out players for the Sharks were their mid-fielder Ollie Crane, who was named man-of-the-match, full-back Blake Wotherspoon, who continued to boom the ball down the field all day, and goal keeper Zac Grace, who made 17 shots on goal, maybe this was why Kingy had trouble scoring
In the women’s competition there was only one game played, with the Kingscliff v Casurina match deferred due to this weekend’s state championships. These two teams make up the bulk of the representative side this year.
In the remaining game, goals each to Kristy Paron and Tara Rochester saw the Waratah Falcons come away with a 2-0 win over Murwillumbah.
