IRISH HOCKEY LEAGUE FINALS:LORETO CLAIMED the inaugural Irish Hockey League at Grange Road yesterday, becoming the first side in the world to win a title on the new penalty one-on-one format against Hermes. Loreto won 2-1 after play had finished scoreless.
Louisa Healy proved the heroine, denying both Jenny Burke and Chloe Watkins in the shoot-out to win the best-of-three competition.
Loreto’s Nikki Keegan and Cathy McKean both scored to take the initiative, while Anna O’Flanagan was awarded a penalty goal as Healy committed a stick-foul.
The result was hard won following a pulsating 80 minutes of action, full of goalmouth intrigue despite the lack of goals. Indeed, Loreto twice thought they had a crucial opener – first when Nikki Symmons superb reverse-stick cross was adjudged to have been deflected in by Ali Meeke. Initially awarded, Meeke’s body language suggested she got no no such touch.
More dramatically, McKean smashed home in the first period of extra-time before play was pulled back for an earlier Nikki Keegan foot. The chances, though, were not all confined to one end as Nikki Evans flashed narrowly wide.
McKean was twice denied by an out-rushing Emma Gray before almost nicking the win outright in the final 15 seconds of normal time with a reverse that clattered the sideboard.
LORETO:L Healy, C Grealy, N Symmons, N Keegan, C McKean, S O'Meara, R Keegan, L Colvin, N Small, H Matthews, A Campion. Subs: A Meeke, S McGirr
HERMES: E Gray, J Kinch, N Atcheler, J Burke, L Caulfield, A Harte, C Quinlan, A McCarthy, N Evans, S McDonnell, A O’Flanagan. Subs: G Pinder, J Hodgins, S Sloan, C Watkins.
