Railway show resilience to grind out a draw without a goalkeeper

Saturday's EY Hockey League games proved to be something of a goal fest with 30 scored in the five games, Catholic Institute and Loreto running riot in their fixtures, helping themselves to eight apiece.

Railway Union, though, produced the performance of the day when they held Old Alexandra, joint second going in to the game, to a 3-3 draw at Park Avenue despite, remarkably, playing without a goalkeeper for close to an hour after Riona Norton went off injured and there was no replacement on the bench.

Railway even managed to go 3-1 up by the 50th minute of the game, Florence Maughan and a double from Kate Lloyd putting them in charge after Nikki Evans had given Alexandra the lead.

The visitors, though, were level by the end of the third quarter through Lena Tice and another Evans score, but they were denied a winner by some superb defending in front of that goalkeeper-less goal, Orla Patton clearing one effort off the line.

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It was also 3-3 up in Belfast too where Pegasus took on UCD, the students recovering from going a goal down, Emma Quinn scoring for the hosts, to lead by the end of the first quarter through scores from the Carey twins, Niamh and Michelle.

Lucy McKee had Pegasus level by half-time and they were 3-2 up through Taite Doherty's 44th minute goal, but Niamh Carey rescued a point for UCD when she scored from a short corner seven minutes from time.

Leaders Pembroke Wanderers, meanwhile, made it five wins in a row with a 2-0 defeat of Muckross, a goal in each half from Rachel O'Brien and Tori Wensley settling the tie.

The Harlequins of Belfast and Cork had a day to forget when they both shipped eight goals in their ties, a Naomi Carroll hat-trick sending Institute on their way to victory over the Ulster side while eight Loreto players got on the scoresheet against Cork.

Hockey League – Division One: Catholic Institute 8 (N Carroll 3, R Upton 2, L Clery, A Horan, M Scanlon), Belfast Harlequins 0; Loreto 8 (S Evans, H Matthews, A Murray, Y Pratt, G Donald, C Hamill, A Taaffe, S Torrans), Cork Harlequins 0; Muckross 0, Pembroke Wanderers 2 (R O'Brien, T Wensley); Pegasus 3 (E Quinn, L McKee, T Doherty), UCD 3 (N Carey 2, M Carey); Railway Union 3 (F Maughan, K Lloyd 2), Old Alexandra 3 (N Evans 2, L Tice).