Luke Lowden kicked the match winner for Box Hill as the Hawks kept their finals hopes alive with a come from behind four point win against Collingwood last weekend at Box Hill City Oval. In a seesawing match, Box Hill was able to kick three of the last four goals of the game to claim victory and the “Training for Life” Cup. With 28 minutes gone in the final term, Lowden marked 40 metres out, and the Hawks big man put his inaccurate day behind him to slot through his first of the match – and in the end the sealer.
After the game, Lowden spoke of his nervousness before striding in to kick the match winner. “It is the first time that I have ever done it (kicking the sealer), so I was pretty pumped.
“I was pretty nervous, and on the way in I was speaking to Xavier Ellis and asked him what way the wind was blowing so he thought I was absolutely no chance, so I was pretty excited (to kick it).”
Lowden’s goal kicking form earlier in the game (0.2) left the coaches bench and his teammates on tender hooks as the 204cm tall ruckman took his set shot with less than two minutes left in the game.
“I was shanking them all over the place earlier in the day, and the wind was doing plenty out there. Finally when it mattered I was able to sink it,” Lowden said.
Kicking against the breeze in the first term, Box Hill struggled with their accuracy and were unable to find the goals – kicking five behinds to Collingwood’s 3.3. Collingwood used the breeze to their advantage with goals to John McCarthy, Kris Ugle and a long bomb from Tyson Goldsack to open up a 14 point quarter time lead.
It only took three minutes in the second term for Box Hill to finally break their goal drought, as Sam Gibson sailed one through from long range to reduce the margin to eight points. The Hawks kicked the first two goals of the second term before Jye Bolton kicked one on the run for the Pies to take the visitors lead back out to 10 points, 15 minutes into the term. The rest of the quarter was all Box Hill as they started to find their targets inside forward 50. Goals to Ben Fagan, Taylor Gilchrist, Derek Wanganeen and a goal from 23rd player Ben Monkhurst in the final 10 minutes of the quarter saw Box Hill wrestle the lead in their favour at half time to the tune of 14 points.
Box Hill extended their run of unanswered goals to five when Adam Pattison kicked the first of the term, but that was to be the Hawks final goal of the term. The Magpies swung the ascendancy their way once again, as they improved their running game to kick goals on the run. After a set shot from Declan Reilly to reduce the margin to 14 points, Rob Condy and Ugle both highlighted the run of Collingwood to reduce the margin to just three points at the final break.
Box Hill had the advantage of the breeze in the final term, but it was Collingwood who kicked the opening two goals of the quarter to regain the lead by nine points. In a tense final term, Wanganeen kicked his second for the match before the visitors took the lead back out to nine points when McCarthy goaled. Xavier Ellis kicked one of the run to bring the Hawks back within three points at the 25 minute mark of the term before Ellis played his part again in getting the ball to Lowden up forward for the decider.
Collingwood were quick to push the ball forward in the dying stages of the game, but were unable to convert, with Box Hill holding on for a narrow four point win.
Having lost two close games in the last month to Geelong and the Northern Bullants, Lowden said it was great to finally get over the line. “If you look at the amount of quarters we have won for the season, we have won our fair share of them,” he said.
“It was good to finally get a win in a close one, as all the guys and all the coaching staff, especially DC (Damian Carroll) have been putting in a lot of effort and it is finally great to just get the result.”
Box Hill Hawks this week head to Casey on Sunday to take on the Scorpions who have lost their last two matches, whilst Collingwood host ladder leaders Port Melbourne on Saturday.
Last Modified on 06/07/2011 13:53