Spalding Water Polo Club’s ‘Spalding Sharks’ made it two wins out of two in the East Midlands League when they beat Northampton 11-7 at the Castle Sports Complex’s pool.
Gareth Lord started the scoring in the first quarter, quickly followed by two goals from Jordan Templer.
Calvin Wilson was then unlucky to have a shot blocked on the line, but captain Steve Rogers was next on the score sheet with a superb goal in the top right corner.
The Sharks led 4-1 at the end of the first quarter, but the second period was much tighter.
The Sharks did increase their lead in the first minute with an excellent bounce shot from Templer, but for the following five minutes Northampton piled on the pressure, forcing Tim Shields and goalkeeper John Davis to take charge in defence.
After hitting the crossbar many times, Northampton eventually pulled a goal back – and they should have scored another goal when Wilson conceded a penalty, only for the ensuing shot to be saved by Davis.
After that, a goal from Shields – thanks largely to a wonderful Wilson interception – and another from Northampton made the score 6-3 to the Sharks at half time.
Quarter three saw the Sharks attack from the whistle, with shots from Lord, Rogers, Templer and Tom Marsters – but all were denied a goal in an excellent spell of defending by the Northampton goalkeeper.
Both teams had players excluded during this quarter, but both failed to capitalise when they were in the ‘man-up’ situation.
Lord and Rogers finally found the back of the net before conceding a goal in the last minute of the quarter, Sharks finishing 8-4 ahead.
The fourth quarter started with Templer being excluded – and this time Northampton took advantage of being a man up and scored.
Another player exclusion and two more goals for Northampton caused many anxious moments for players and spectators alike, before the away side scored again to reduce the Sharks lead to two.
In fast end-to-end play, Rogers and Shields scored, extending the lead again to four, but the away side scored again to make the score 10-7.
However, with less than two and half minutes to go, Northampton had a player sent out and Sharks were awarded a penalty.
Templer converted, scoring his fourth goal of the match to make the final score was 11-7 to the home side.
Sharks captain Rogers said: “I am proud of my team, everyone contributed to a great team performance.”
Scorers: Steve Rogers (3), Tim Shields (2), Gareth Lord (2), Jordan Templer (4).
- Spalding Water Polo secured second place in Division One of the Herts Water Polo League after beating Bedford 13-9.
Goals from Jack Carpenter (4), Steve Rogers (3), Ben Marsters (3), Ed Martin (2) and Jordan Templer gave Spalding the win and a strong finishing place in their first season in Division One.
