Eagles title hopes hit by defeat to rivals

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Ruislip Eagles lost their place at the top of the Super 8 table after defeat to title rivals London GD.

Eagles, beaten only once in their first 10 league matches, trailed 7-1 after GD made a fantastic start, and Ruislip coach Marc Fayemi was forced into an early timeout to regroup.

It led to a slight improvement as the hosts narrowed the gap, and strong work by Alex Pechlivanis in goal ensure GD’s lead at half-time was only 14-11.

A few errors crept into the Eagles’ game in the second half, as both teams appreciated the importance of getting a result.

GD right-back Philip Altong played an important role in the offence as he managed to convert most of his shots into goals and helped his team increase the lead to 23-16.

Another timeout helped Eagles rediscover their rhythm and Mika Vitello and Romas Sakovicius scored important goals, before good play from captain Hannes Mazur led to a penalty shot, converted by Jozsef Csontos, to bring it back to 24-20.

However Eagles’ defence couldn’t stay compact enough and leaked four more goals, and despite a valiant attacking effort they could only pull the final score back to 28-26.

The result saw London GD leap above Eagles into top spot, leading by a point with three matches to play.

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