Aloysians von Taine made it six wins from as many matches last weekend after beating champions La Salle Unique 24-22 in the men’s National Championship at the University Sports Hall, Tal-Qroqq.
In other matches, second-placed Luxol lived up to their favourites’ tag as they defeated bottom-placed HMS Parthenope 34-24 and Swieqi Gasan Mamo Phoenix had the better of Kavallieri RS2 35-25.
La Salle’s hopes of retaining the league crown for another year were severely dented with the upset to Aloysians as they’ve now fallen six points behind in the league standings, also having played a match more.
Aloysians took matters in hand from the go as they dominated the early stages to open a 6-1 lead by the end of the ninth minute.
But La Salle shored up their defence and raised their pace in attack as they fought their way back into contention.
In fact, with eight minutes re-maining, the score was 19-all.
Aloysians were not going to be denied though as Matthew Mamo’s team surged forward in attack to take a slight edge and maintain a slender two-goal advantage which they preserved till the end for a very useful win in their bid to wrest the title from La Salle.
Luxol’s Imed Ben Moussa, Gabor Szkiadanyi and David Kocsis all scored seven goals each to help their side cruise past HMS Parthenope.
HMS started off poorly and found it difficult to get the ball past Luxol keeper Daniel Tanti. They improved after the interval, however, only for Luxol to have the final say.
Under the guidance of Hungarian player/coach Krisztjan Olschleger, Swieqi Phoenix started off at an electrifying pace against Kavallieri, leading 6-2 in the first 10 minutes.
However, Kavallieri rejigged their tactics and now they were playing at a par with Swieqi as the first half ended all square – 14-14.
But Swieqi showed quality play after the break with Olschleger distinguishing himself with a series of fine goals for his team to pull away from their opponents and making sure of the victory.
Goalkeeper Clinton Mifsud also played his part in defence for Swieqi, helping his team significantly to seal a merited win.
Standings
Aloysians 18; Luxol 15; La Salle, Swieqi 12; Kavallieri 3; HMS 0.