Cometh the man, cometh the hour.
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With a shot at the national title on the line, it was Albion Park's Jack Hayes who stood up and delivered for NSW on Tuesday afternoon.
Hayes was superb in attack and helped his state clinch the open men's gold medal following a thrilling grand final against ACT at the 2020 Australian Indoor Hockey Festival in Unanderra.
The decider finished 7-all at the end of regulation time. NSW was then able to secure the silverware by winning 2-1 in a penalty shootout.
It was NSW's 12th successive title win at the festival.
Hayes finished the regular game with two goals and also found the back of the net twice during the shootout.
"It was a bit of a nail biter in the end," Hayes told the Mercury after the game.
"We've been training for a fair few weeks now and that's our 12th title in a row so we're used to turning up for the big dance.
"As a high striker, you've got to do your job and fortunately they [his shots on goal] came off today."
See more: NSW women's 'B' team clinches title
Both teams came out with a high intensity in the opening quarter and the floodgates opened at both ends.
ACT's Jake Staines was the first to score and NSW quickly responded through Wollongong's Kurt Ogilvie.
Hayes and ACT veteran Glenn Turner both managed doubles in the first quarter as the scoreboard read 3-all at quarter time.
The second quarter was almost completely the opposite as both teams struggled to score. The ball stays mainly camped in NSW's attacking area, with ACT holding firm in defence.
NSW captain Scott Govers finally broke the scoring drought with two minutes left in the half. The home side led 4-3 at the the half-time break, with NSW keeping its opponent scoreless for the quarter.
Illawarra's Callum Mackay was the first to score in the third quarter to help NSW take a 5-3 advantage.
ACT finally broke their goal-scoring drought, with Andrew Tomadini and Ben Staines both finding the back of the net to draw level at 5-all.
However, a lovely assist by Hayes to Illawarra player Callum Mckay with 40 seconds left in the quarter helped NSW take a 6-5 lead.
ACT peppered the NSW defence early in the fourth quarter and was finally rewarded when Troy Sutherland scored.
With less than a minute, a NSW corner saw the ball flicked to Govers and he appeared to have scored the match-winning goal.
However, ACT's Turner was able to find the back of the net with just three seconds left to complete his hat-trick, equal the score at 7-all and send the game into a shootout.
"That was heart breaking, it was hard to watch," Hayes said.
But the rest, as they say, is history.
Hayes scored twice during the shootout and only Garry Backhus was successful for ACT as NSW clinched the gold medal.
Victorious captain Scott Govers said it was a great result for hard work.
"We sort of made it a little bit hard for ourselves, but we stuck to it and when the time came we put it away," he said.
"It's always a very high intensity against these guys [ACT], we've played them for the last five or six years in finals so you always have to step up. They always put you under the pump but we had to stick to what we know and we were lucky to get away with the win.
"[To win] 12 years in a row is a pretty unbelievable feat. The dynasty that sort of has been created is just unbelievable to be part of."
The NSW Blues (B) side finished in fifth place after winning Tuesday's classification clash by 2-1 against Western Australia.
The team included Illawarra's Daniel Joliffe, Jack Donovan, Alexander Mackay, Joshua Mayo, Thomas Miootto and Will Orth.
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