The Galleon - Portsmouth's Official Student Newspaper

On Saturday 6th November Portsmouth University’s 2nds took on Southampton Tridents in a highly anticipated game of lacrosse. A win for Portsmouth would see them banish their demons and make headway into this season’s SEMLA league, and with Southampton in a similar position this was a match of great importance for both teams, regardless of the old rivalry between them.

Portsmouth began strongly with Alex Hamilton winning the face and maintained possession to set up around the opposition’s goal, taking control of the first quarter. Tom Verlander struck the first blow by driving from behind the goal to convert a well placed shot past the Tridents’ keeper. This was shortly followed by Richard Moyes getting his first goal after great work in front of Southampton’s net. The Tridents were shaken after this immediate setback but slowly began gaining more confidence and possession before bringing the score to 2-1. Moyes, however, took the game to Southampton and with a well timed drive and good stick work proceeded to score his second goal of the match to end the first quarter 3-1.

Southampton were in the driving seat during the second quarter after gaining an early goal, due to a technical problem in the Portsmouth side, bringing the score to 4-2. Moyes managed to convert his third goal but sloppy defending by Portsmouth lent Southampton the opportunity to tighten the noose and end the quarter just one goal behind.

After an inspiring team talk from captain Chris Brown, Portsmouth regained their momentum with Max West providing the first outlet scoring a good goal to increase Portsmouth’s lead to 5-3. Moyes completed his Man of the Match performance by adding two more goals to his tally of 5 and setting Portsmouth up with a strong platform to begin the last quarter.

The last quarter only proved to show Portsmouth’s dominance and with great possession and well formed chances the only thing missing was the finishing. The resulting score was a 7-3 victory for Portsmouth with notable performances coming from the two debutants Jeff Kimble and Jeremy Haest.