England stormed to a 14-7 victory against Czechia in the opening Group A game at the 2023 ELF Women’s U21 Lacrosse Championship in Prague despite a spirited performance from the hosts.
Hat-tricks from Sofia Wise and Emma Pearce saw England finish the first quarter with a five goal cushion and the score at 6-1.
But Czechia showed their quality in the second and third, restricting England to just three goals in those periods and reducing the deficit to three.
England regrouped in the fourth and final quarter and goals from Carys Johnson, Lara Renders, Pearce, and Ella Dimbylow ensured a 14-7 victory ahead of the team’s second Group A game on Tuesday against Wales.
England started with intent in the opening minutes of the game quickly finding themselves a goal up after Johnson picked the ball up just behind the Czechia goal, drove inside and passed to an unmarked Wise who finished with ease.
Before long England had doubled their lead through Wise once again after she was played in brilliantly by Dimbylow who spotted Wise’s run from deep.
England’s third and fourth goals came soon after the second - first through Pearce who finished from the edge of the fan after being played in from behind the goal by Annie Mather and then through Wise who scored her hat-trick goal after being picked out beautifully by captain, Rachael Ball.
To round off the first quarter, Emma Pearce scored her second of the match in exquisite style after driving toward goal and finishing from range and added her hat-trick goal soon after from a free position.
In a sign of things to come, Ellen Pantazopoulou scored Czechia’s first goal of the game from a free position with just a couple of seconds left of the first quarter.
As the game moved into the second and third quarters, Czechia found their stride with E. Pantazopoulou scoring twice either side of another Wise goal for England before Victorie Štědrá and E. Pantazopoulou grabbed another couple for the opposition moments after Rachael Ball had scored from close range for England.
Right at the end of the third quarter, Lucy Evans added another for England just before a Markéta Fišerová goal ensured England went into the fourth with a slender three goal lead.
Any nerves about England not being completely in control of this opening match of the tournament were put to bed at the start of the fourth quarter as Johnson, Mather, Renders, Pearce, and Dimbylow all scored with just one reply from Czechia through Sofie Pantazopoulou.
The victory sees England top of Group A after one game with Czechia and Wales battling it out in the late game tomorrow.
You can watch the entire game in full HERE.
England points scorers | Wise (4G), Pearce (4G), Ball (1G, 2A), Johnson (1G, 1A), Mather (1G, 1A), Dimbylow (1G, 1A), Evans (1G), Renders (1G), Cant (1A)
Czechia points scorers | E. Pantazopoulou (4G), S. Pantazopoulou (1G), Victorie Štědrá (1G), Markéta Fišerová (1G), Lucie Chottousová (1A)
MVP | Jemma Thomson