Frédérique Matla banged in a hat trick of backhand shots to set Den Bosch off and running with a 6-0 win in the women’s Hoofdklasse in the Netherlands, seeing off Victoria.
After Noor Omrani’s opening goal, Matla scored three of the next four goals before Lidewij Welten helped herself to a pair of goals.
Title hopefuls SCHC had to wait until the 69th minute before getting their winner against Bloemendaal with Ginella Zerbo making amends for a missed penalty stroke earlier in the game to grab the crucial goal. They trailed with three minutes left but Pien Dicke made it 2-2 before Zerbo cashed in.
A new-look Oranje-Rood started with a win with 16-year-old talent Trijntje Beljaars getting her first goal for the first team in a 2-1 success against Laren. Ultimately, Janneke van de Venne’s goal was the difference, coming 12 minutes before the end.
Pinoké beat Kampong while HDM saw off Hurley 2-1 thanks to Tessa Beetsma’s diving touch in the closing seconds.
In the men’s competition, Rotterdam’s star men Jeroen Hertzberger and Thijs van Dam both scored twice in Eindhoven to beat Oranje-Rood 4-1 in the performance of the weekend.
EHL Cup qualifiers Den Bosch held off the challenge of Pinoké to record a 3-2 success. Austin Smith’s early corner was added to by a couple of Noud Schoenaker touches for a 3-0 lead before Alexander Hendrickx and new addition Niklas Wellen gave Pinoké hope.
They had a couple of corner shots but Loïc van Doren held firm for a good start to the season on the road.
AH&BC Amsterdam were comfortable 5-1 winners in their derby against Hurley while Bloemendaal were too strong for Almere, 5-2. HGC beat Tilburg 3-0 with a Kenta Tanaka brace and SV Kampong accounted for Klein Zwitserland 5-0 with Jip Janssen’s pair of corner goals setting them on their way.