Glass and Damarell do the damage for Colombians

In keeping with tradition, after scoring a hat-trick in the 5-2 win against Elizabeth College at Footes Lane, Hamish Glass’s first port of call was the Hockey Club bar to order a pitcher of beer to share among his team to mark his achievement.

It could so easily have been Zak Damarell getting his wallet out, but instead the Colombians captain was the first man queuing next to his forward, grinning in the knowledge that he had opted to lay their final goal on a plate for Glass rather than take the shot himself with both having already scored twice in the match.

For their opposition, it was another lesson learned as once again Elizabeth College played some good hockey but kept getting caught out by a more streetwise side who know how to get the job done.

The students were not helped by Colombians getting off to a flier as Glass gave them the lead within the first minute or so.

Having to play catch up against the yellows is difficult for any top-flight side and their task became harder midway through the first half when Damarell doubled the lead.

However, Andy Good’s College side have shown themselves to be nothing less than competitive in every game and they managed to halve the deficit four minutes before half-time through Toby Storer.

That goal buoyed the youngsters, but their eagerness to push for an equaliser at the start of the second half was exploited by Colombians, who were happy to sit back and use Glass’s pace on the break.

Via that route, the yellows earned a couple of short-corners and while Morgan Clayton made a good save to deny Damarell from the first of those, the Colombians captain made no mistake with his low drive that found the bottom corner from the second.

The quick counter worked once more on 48min. as Damarell’s long pass found Glass, who needed no further assistance as his shot beat Clayton at an awkward height for the goalkeeper.

College did not let their heads drop and they enjoyed a good spell of pressure with Charlie Clapham, Zak Taylor and Josh Duke all going close, but Clapham was then shown a yellow card and while EC were down to 10 Colombians extended their lead further with Damarell teeing up Glass to complete his hat-trick in a two-on-one situation.

The boys in blue did manage to get the second goal they deserved late on, though, as Duke’s sharp reactions at the far post finished off a clever short-corner routine in the 69th minute.