Fired-up Blaze take scalp of another title contender

Nena Copperwaite’s side edged top-of-the-table Lightning A 40-38 in a Grammar School duel advertising the competitiveness of this Premier Division campaign – while their own title chances are minimal, they added another big scalp on top of weeks earlier beating the other big contenders, champions Rezzers Green.

The top three have enjoyed several compelling battles this season, but this is the closest one yet and Lightning showed great resilience to strike back from a near match-long deficit.

Blaze came through the first quarter with the narrowest of leads, 9-8, but they soon began to stamp their authority in what was primarily an excellent defensive effort.

Tall circle defenders GK Ella Staples and GD Amy Fallaize worked tirelessly to claim turnovers, with the latter’s great energy also proving a boon in centre-court, where teenage starlet and eventual player-of-the-match WD Lillie Cochrane shone with her eye for the intercept.

Lightning’s solid defence also served them well and Bonnie Le Noury filled the WD position nicely as she worked towards her own POM nomination.

But unforced errors troubled Lightning in quarter two and Blaze punished them for it, hitting a five-goal scoring run shortly after the interval.

With GA Abbie Greening returning from Covid to complement in-form GS Zola Saunders in the circle, they fired their team 22-17 clear at half-time.

The only change of the game occurred at half-time when Lydia McClean took Lightning’s WA bib to replace Kerri Brown, another recent Covid sufferer.

McClean settled quickly and although Blaze dragged their lead into double digits, quarter three was a net gain for Lightning as they fought back admirably and closed the gap to 32-28.

Lightning continued fighting fiercely in the final stanza and captain Donna Brehaut shone at GS, making some fantastic shots under heavy pressure as her team came within one converted turnover of a draw.

But Blaze captain Copperwaite was ‘really chuffed’ to see her side coming out top.

‘We had to work so hard for that, so it was really, really good,’ she said.

‘We pulled ahead by 10 at one point and it just took two centre passes into the circle for them to bring it back, but other than that period there, I was really pleased with how we played, particularly our defence.

‘I thought our defence was outstanding. I think they made it hard for Steph and Donna at the back and they were really strong, and I thought Lillie had an absolute blinder today.

‘Everyone fought hard, particularly Ella, Amy and Lillie, who did such a good job.’

Brehaut admitted the match was an uphill struggle after that second quarter but praised her team’s finishing effort.

‘We had a challenging second quarter, but other than that bad period of five minutes or so, it was pretty even,’ she said.

‘I think the girls gave everything in that last quarter. We gave it everything to try to pull the game back.

‘All in all, I’m really pleased with the way the girls came back, but we could not get over the unforced errors in that quarter and we were getting capitalised on – full credit to Blaze, they were probably the better team on the night.’

This result continues a red-hot second half of the season for Blaze, who would have been firm title contenders if not for costly losses to Lightning (twice) and Rezzers before Christmas.

They took all five points on Tuesday but, due to the low goal difference, handed Lightning two to leave them floating seemingly out of reach in the Premiership standings.

Now Blaze would require a black swan scenario – with at least one of the top two dropping points to B teams – and other favourable results to push for the Winter League's top honour.

But with under a month left of the season, the tightness of the standings at this advanced point is the sign of a campaign to remember.