S. Thomas’ in fine recovery to win 2nd leg of Dr. R.L. Hayman Trophy
After watching a sturdy three-goal buffer blown to dust, S. Thomas’ College staged a remarkable recovery to thwart a resilient Royal College unit, which won the second leg of the Dr. R.L Hayman Trophy 4-3 but fell 11-9 on aggregate to relinquish the title they won last year, after an adrenaline-infused clash at the Sugathadasa pool yesterday.
It took three quarters for Royal to undo the damage of the 8-5 defeat inflicted on them during the annual encounter’s first leg. However, they lacked the final burst of inspiration needed to force them to a victorious summit, which had stood impossibly steep at the start of the fixture.
A Thomian player sends the ball rocketing towards the goal - Pic by Ranjith Perera
Although Royal crept mightily close to a win, they were confronted with a ton of grit, transported on a thundering Thomian truck, which took time to generate momentum but crashed through all obstacles once it had switched to top gear.
S. Thomas’ accomplished its goal-scoring through a penalty from Devshan de Mel and two magnificent efforts from Dineth Francis and Deelaka Weeraratne.
At the vanguard of Royal’s impressive fight back were two goals each from Kisal Asalarachchi and Royal College Vice Captain Akila Weerasinghe.
Royal snatched the initiative from the opening whistle, launching forward in numbers to rapidly rattle home the game’s first goal through Asalarachchi, who unleashed a thunderbolt past Thomian goalie Kosala Wijewardena.
After a series of close shaves, S. Thomas’ saw their goal once again breached in the middle of the second quarter by Weerasinghe, leaving their first leg lead in an extremely flimsy state. It was stripped of all its grandeur several minutes later, when in the third quarter Asalarachchi sent the ball rocketing past a now hapless Wijewardena.
But a Thomian penalty throw on the brink of the third quarter, which De Mel converted with ease, halted the hemorrhaging and offered brief respite heading into the fourth and final quarter. This proved to be the adequate shock to the system S. Thomas’ needed to resuscitate their play.
Within the span of a few minutes, they manufactured a majestic sequence through which first Francis and then Weeraratne sent the ball bursting into Royal’s goal and pushed the game firmly into their possession. As S. Thomas’ fans burst to life in an explosion of euphoria, Weerasinghe sieved one more goal to Royal’s tally, but by then all hope of victory was buried in a thick cloud much gloomier than those that hung overhead.
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