IF Lithgow Panthers were going to be a chance of winning the 2014 men’s Premier League hockey grand final against St Pat’s on Saturday, they needed a strong start at the Cooke Hockey Complex.
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Thanks to Jarrod Cameron the Panthers got that flying start and went on to post a 5-2 upset victory over the minor premiership winning St Pats, making it nine premierships for the Lithgow club.
Though Panthers had won their first meeting of the year against St Pat’s, the blue and whites beat them twice before the close of the regular season and then took out the major semi final.
St Pats started as hot favourites to win their second premiership in three years, but Panthers were hungry to defend the crown they won by downing Souths on grand final day 12 months earlier.
That hunger showed from the outset and after Cameron scored in the eighth and 13th minutes, his side was on the path to glory.
The first came from a deflection and five minutes later followed the most spectacular goal of the grand final.
An overhead pass out of defence released Lithgow’s NSW under 21 representative Brandan Horner, who used his speed and skill to beat the Saints’ left side defence.
Horner’s attempt rolled across the face of goal and looked to be going out — St Pat’s goalkeeper Daniel Casey actually leaving the ball — but Cameron came sprinting in at the far post and his full length dive knocked the ball into the net.
“I just got a couple of lucky ones there, but if you keep running off Horner you are going to score goals and that is exactly what I did today,” Jarrod Cameron said.
“That second goal, I was doing a bit of bludging in defence and I was coming back through.
“When I saw the break I thought I was a chance, so I just put the effort in at the end there and dove as you can tell, because I lost half the skin on my knuckles and my knee.”
It took 15 minutes for the Saints to notch up the first of their 26 circle penetrations, and while it resulted in an on-target shot from the league’s leading goal scorer in Jaden Ekert, Panthers custodian Mitch Britton was up to the task.
In the next five minutes Britton made three more class blocks and when he was finally beaten — Brendan Burke drawing him out after a fast break — Brodie Cook’s final touch rolled just wide.
Eleven minutes out from the break Horner, who was a threat up front the entire match, punished a Saints defensive error as he scored after working a one-two with Travis Cameron.
While the Saints kept their hopes alive when Burke scored with three minutes 43 seconds left on the clock for the first half, Panthers were quick to reply.
Horner was once again released by an overhead and found Trent MacDonald in support.
His resulting shot was wide of the mark, but it struck the stick of Pat’s defender Darcy Davis and went into the net.
That made it 4-1 at half-time and just 90 seconds after play resumed Panthers had another goal as Travis Cameron put away a Horner cross.
Though St Pats rallied after this, Panthers stood firm in defence with the imposing Ron Charlton continuously shutting down dangerous moves.
Matt Naylor gave the hosts hope when a penalty corner drag flick found the mark with 25 minutes left, but that was to be the final goal of the match.
The frustration told as time ticked away, Pat’s Sam Macpherson and Lithgow skipper Dave Marshall yellow carded for trading blows.
Jarrod Cameron was also given an enforced stint on the sideline when shown a green card for an incident involving Casey, but he returned for the final 96 seconds and was a happy man come the final whistle.
“Pat’s have been the benchmark for the majority of the year and credit to them for that,” Panther star Dave Marshall said.
“We all believed in each other and if we produced our best on the day we would get them.
“They have a number of star players while we have top class players all over through and play as a team.
“Our confidence grew after our final win over Parkes and our form has been building for the last few weeks,” he said.
“Today the boys just stepped up and it was great to see.
“We are a proud club and we were determined to make it premiership number nine and score back to back titles.”
It was hard to separate the players for the team’s best and fairest with every player contributing to the great win.
LITHGOW PANTHERS 5 (Jarrod Cameron 2, Brandon Horner, Travis Cameron, Trent McDonald) defeated ST PAT’S 2 (Brendan Burke, Matt Naylor).