A magical third quarter was too much for Bishops College as Visakha Vidyalaya ran away with the trophy in their annual water polo encounter wrapping up the match with a comprehensive victory of 12 goals to 8.
Photo Album – Annual Bishop’s v Visakha Water Polo Encounter
Visakha Vidyalaya started the encounter as predicted when they scored courtesy of a long range shot by Shaleena Peiris during a man up situation and also minutes later doubled Visakha’s lead when she took a wonderful close range shot leaving Bishop’s college shell shocked. Shaleena could’ve completed her first half hat trick when she stepped up to take a penalty but failed to after a wonderful save by Thavisha Attanayake.
Nuwanthi Manapperuma’s wonderful long range effort after drawing the foul extended Visakha’s lead to 3 goals. A quick and clever pass by Aneesah Fowsie to Ashanti Sumanapala, where Ashanti managed to turn her marker and shoot past Samaakhya Gajanayake put Bishop’s college on the board for the first time and reduced the lead to 2 goals. Avishka Dedigama was quick to reply with another long range shot and once again restoring Visakha Vidyalaya’s lead to 3 goals. A wonderful outside shot by Aneesah Fowsie reduced the deficit to two goals to make the score 4-2 in favor of Visakha.That concluded the 1st quarter in which Visakha Vidayalaya was dictating
proceedings.
Aneesah was denied by the cross bar as she looked to cut the lead to half in the 1st attack of the 2nd quarter. Last weeks’ 4 -goal hero Nadishka Senanayake got her first of the day when she was found unmarked in front of the goal and she slotted in past the Bishops’ goalkeeper with ease to make score 5-2 in favor of her team.
The goal of the match was scored by Aneesah Fowsie when she took a 8m back hand that left Visakha goal keeper Samaakhya Gajanayake baffled as to how it went in. The score moved on to 5-3 still in favor of Visakha.
Ashanti Sumanapala reduced the Visakha’s lead by scoring a wonderful shotjust in front of the goal and the scored moved on to 5-4. As Bishop’s looked like they were shifting the momentum around Nuwanthi Manapperuma scored a wonderful cross cage shot to restore her team’s lead to two goals moving the score on to 6-4.
Bishops managed to pull one back just before half time when Avasha Broham shot a well-executed lob shot from the far side and that ended the 2nd half as the teams went in for lemons with bishops trailing by just 1 goal and the score board in favor of Visakha with 6 goals to 5.
Tusari Ekanayake got herself on to the score sheet when she took a long range shot that could’ve been easily stopped but Bishops as their goalkeeper made a complete mess of it and the ball ended up in the back of the net. The score moved on to 7-5.
Ashanti Sumanapala reduced the gap to one goal when she slotted in a beautiful pass from Keshya Ranatunga that moved the score to 7 goals to 6 still in favor of Visakha. Bishops would’ve definitely wanted to avoid the same fate Ladies college had last week when they were completely steam rolled by Visakha during the 3rd quarter that eventually sealed the game tight, but unfortunately it looked like the same script by Visakha as they scored 3 unanswered goals. All 3 of those goals were by Miss Consistent skipper of the team Shaleena Peiris who also managed to complete her hat-trick during this period. That marked the end of the Visakhians favorite quarter and the score board showed 10 goals to 6 in favor of Visakha.
Bishops college tried everything they could to come back into the game but they were really unlucky during some well-deserved attacks as the cross bar served as a second goalie for Visakha. Nuwanthi Manapperuma increased lead to 5 goals when she took another long range shot and Thaveesha Attanayakes bad day in the goal continued.
Bishops college looked to be fighting a lost cause as a Ashanti Sumanapala scored after Samaakhya couldn’t block Avasha Brohams far end shot cleanly that resulted the ball falling straight into the oath of Ashanti. Thaveesha Attanayake managed to make a mess of another long range shot by Nuwanthi Manapperuma as Visakha restored their 5 goal cushion.
The score moved on to 12-7. Aneesah Fowsie had the last say of the game as she took a powerful 5m shot that beat Samaakhya Gajanayake with ease but unfortunately that wasn’t enough to save Bishops College as Visakha Vidyalaya managed to win the 2nd Annual BC VV water polo encounter.
ThePapare.com player of the match- Shaleena Peiris
It was the same story in the Junior match as well as Visakha dictated terms throughout the game that ended with a 11 goal to 3.
