High-flying Seagulls dish out Riversmeet rout (From Bournemouth Echo)

High-flying Seagulls dish out Riversmeet rout

5:20pm Wednesday 10th February 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

CHRISTCHURCH and New Milton Seagulls’ water polo squads extended their unbeaten season when they entertained West Dorset at Two Riversmeet for their first time.

A good crowd of home and away supporters cheered from the sidelines as a 7-3 victory by the Seagulls’ Key Stage 2 team was followed by a 16-0 trouncing of the visitors by their KS3 side.

In the opening match, Seagulls’ KS2 team came out quickly and scored with less than a minute on the clock.

The rest of the quarter was a close-fought tussle with neither side gaining the upper hand until Seagulls scored again from a fast counter-attack to take a 2-0 lead into the turn-around.

The second quarter was evenly matched with both sides strong in defence and no goals until the last minute, when both scored.

The third quarter followed a similar pattern with West Dorset reducing the deficit to a single goal before the hosts regained their two-goal cushion with a late score to go into the final quarter 4-2 up.

As both sides tired in the last quarter, the match suddenly opened up.

In an exciting passage of play, Seagulls scored twice through some unusually strong pit plays for a team in this age group.

The visitors fought back and might have scored several times but for some excellent goalkeeping by Kyle East.

Seagulls scored a breakaway goal to extend their lead before conceding a penalty on the final whistle.

With the last throw of the game, West Dorset’s well-taken penalty shot cut Seagulls’ winning margin to 7-3.

In the KS3 match, Seagulls’ greater experience and superior organisation told from the start and they romped into a 5-0 lead in the first quarter.

For the second quarter, the home club rotated their players to field a very young side.

The youngsters quickly locked into the pace of the game, scoring twice in the opening minute of the quarter.

With an 8-0 lead going into the third quarter, Seagulls opted to keep the younger players in the pool.

Seagulls scored steadily throughout the period with some skilful set moves to take a 13-0 lead into the final quarter.

They returned their strongest unit to the pool for the final session and maintained their grip on the game with three further goals early in the period to complete a 16-0 shut-out.

Seagulls’ novice coach Steve Wyper said: “The Key Stage 2 match was a tough test of our youngsters against a very mobile West Dorset side. Having taken an early lead, we were matched closely by them until the last quarter, when our superior fire-power eventually told.

“In the KS3 game, the most pleasing thing was to see so many of the squad on the score-sheet, showing just how versatile our players are becoming.”

Seagulls’ novice squad (goals in brackets): Harrison Mullins, Darius Perkins, Sarah Rogers, Kathy Rogers (4), Edward Stephenson, Christian Tai (2), Alice Tai, Shania Todd, Spencer Wilks (1).

Academy squad: George Bukvic (5), Kyle East, Megan Fletcher (2), Peter Gallagher, Beth Kingsley (1), Mikey Kingsley (1), Cianan Mann (4), Jackson Mullins (2), Charlie Roberts (1), Chloe Roxburgh, James Stephenson