Pride Women Strike Twice in Two Minutes to Beat Canberra Chill 2-0
Two minutes. That’s all it took.
NSW Pride’s women beat Canberra Chill 2-0 at Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday, and the whole game turned on a two-minute burst in the second quarter. Abby Wilson converted a penalty corner in the 20th minute. A minute later Amalia Patterson buried a field goal. 2-0. And that was that.
It was the first Hockey One matchday ever played at Olympic Park, and the home crowd got a proper welcome. The Pride women had already put seven past Adelaide last weekend, and they looked like scoring every time they got near the circle early on. The Chill held them out for a quarter. Then Wilson, the league’s all-time leading scorer, did what she does from the corner, and Patterson followed up before Canberra could reset.
Patterson’s goal was her fifth of the season. She’s become the Pride’s most reliable finisher this year, and with Makayla Jones and Grace Stewart around her, this attack has too many ways to hurt you. Stewart was back in the side after missing the last two rounds, and even without adding to her own tally of four, her return made the forward line look complete again.
For Canberra, this is a worry now. Two games, two 2-0 defeats. HC Melbourne shut them out at home last week, and the Pride did the same here. The Chill have quality all over the pitch, with Lynn Krings and Mabel Brands in the side, but the goals have dried up against the teams above them. They came into the day fourth on the ladder, a place behind the Pride, and that gap just got wider.
Credit the Chill defence for this much: after the 21st minute, they didn’t concede again. They dug in, they kept the Pride at two, and they gave themselves a chance. The problem was the other end. No way through, no penalty corner converted, no late push that ever really threatened Jocelyn Bartram’s goal.
The Pride women stay right in the finals race. Their next test is the big one, away to HC Melbourne on Friday night. The Chill get a week to fix the attack before Round 6.
