Illawarra Kookaburras stars Blake Govers and Flynn Ogilvie were the standouts in NSW Pride's 11-2 win over HC Melbourne in round three of the Hockey One League in Sydney on Sunday.
Govers' four goals and Ogilvie's opening goal were the highlights of the match at Sydney's Olympic Park, combined with other single goals from captain Jack Hayes and Daine Richards' final goal to record the highest ever score in the domestic men's competition.
Ogilvie, who was named player of the match for his outstanding role in midfield, has been described as one of the finest hockey midfielders in the world.
Wollongong's Ogilvie, who will only play four of the six-round games, was pretty happy with his game but still needs plenty of improvement for his game when he has the ball.
"I think I defended very well and it was good to get on the score sheet," Ogilvie said.
"As a team, we have stuff to work on still, but we are very happy with the results so far. We have so much firepower in our team that teams have to be at their best all game to deny us, we have been very good on capitalising on chances we get.
"It's so refreshing and fun to play in a team that plays this way and promotes attacking, skilful and fast hockey."
The men's Pride team went into top gear early in the opening quarter when, after Govers missed their first penalty corner, he found space in the circle in the fourth minute to pass to Ogilvie who scored with an easy tap-in.
Ogilvie converted this goal past Melbourne's international goalkeeper Johan Durst to go up 2-0. Govers then took the score to 4-0 in the 12th minute when he hit home a loose ball inside the circle and duly converted this goal.
Melbourne hit back in the second quarter with three penalty corners and were rewarded in the eighth minute of the third quarter when Nathan Ephraums saw his goal-bound shot deflected into the goal by a Pride defender and converted this to reduce the deficit to 4-2.
A minute later, Govers scored his third goal from a perfect drag flick and completed his fourth from the penalty spot after Tim Brand was brought down when set to score three minutes later, increasing the score to 6-2.
Brand converted this penalty to make it 7-2 and Hayes deflected the ball into the goal from a rocket-like penalty corner taken by Ky Willott in the last seconds of the quarter taking the score to 8-2.
The final quarter saw Melbourne remove their goalkeeper to supplement an extra field player, but the Pride took advantage of this to find Willott score into an empty goal and conversion to make it 10-2 with five minutes to go. Seconds later, Daine Richards nailed the final goal for a record 11-2 win but failed to convert from the spot after he was fouled during the conversion.
Meanwhile the Pride women's side, playing without Gerringong Hockeyroo Grace Stewart, lost their match to Melbourne 4-3 in a penalty shootout after the teams had drawn 1-1 at full-time.
The Pride teams next move to Canberra to face the Chill this Saturday.
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