Four Parkes girls joined with four girls from Lithgow to participate in the Under 13s girls Indoor Hockey State Championships at Gosford.
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Savannah Draper, Maggie Wright, Sophie Wright and Gracey Denham-Jones from Parkes played in Division 1 for Lithgow.
The team did extremely well, finishing joint-champions with Tamworth after the two sides could not be separated.
Parkes goalkeeper Gracey Denham-Jones was rewarded for an excellent carnival with selection in the NSW side to compete at the Australian titles in January.
The team was unable to train in the lead up to the championships and only met each other one hour before the first game.
The goal for the first day was to win both matches and not concede any goals.
The girls played some good hockey to come away with a 2-0 win over Metro South-West No 1.
It was a close match with the girls taking the first half to settle in before starting to grow as a team throughout the second half.
They continued on their winning ways, scoring a 3-0 win over North-West Sydney No 1.
The girls finished the first day with maximum points and conceding no goals.
Day two started with the girls’ toughest game by far in a match that was played with great intensity and ended up a 2-all draw against Tamworth.
Their next match against Central Coast was a must win for the girls if they wanted to finish top of their pool.
The girls suffered their first defeat in a narrow 2-1 loss.
The loss saw Lithgow finish second in their pool and set up a semi-final against Manning Valley who were considered the best team after the round games.
In the semi, the girls looked to bounce back after their disappointment the previous night.
A comprehensive 2-0 victory saw the combined Lithgow and Parkes team head into the grand final to meet Tamworth.
In a replay of the round game, Tamworth started the game with great intensity and were able to run out to a 1-0 lead early in the game.
The girls were encouraged to stick to their game plan and were rewarded with 10 seconds left in play with a short corner.
The push out was firm and Lithgow’s Emily Thompson took a drag flick that went into the top of the goal to level at 1-all.
After a short break, both teams played tough, fair and skilful hockey, but were unable to score despite both having opportunities.
After the first six minutes, the teams played an additional six minutes with both teams dropping off one player.
Once again both teams played excellent hockey, but were unable to score.
As the scores were tied, both teams were declared joint State Champions.
The two teams had played 84 minutes hockey and could not be separated.
All girls were a credit to their respective associations and all displayed excellent teamwork on and off the field during the championships.
It was a massive effort considering two of the girls had never played indoor hockey before and Parkes does not have a local indoor competition.