GRAND FINAL: HC Bloemendaal – Gantoise HC (Men)

Match report

Gantoise became the newest EHL Men’s team to write themselves into the annals of the competition’s history as they won a wild 5-2 GRAND FINAL over Bloemendaal.
With his hat trick, Alexander Hendrickx wrote himself further into folklore as the first player to score three times on such a stage and also won back-to-back titles with different clubs having scored the winner a year ago for Pinoké.
It also ended Bloemendaal’s incredible record of never losing a final in the EHL, winning all six of their previous runs to the big decider.
Hendrickx’s low corner bullet gave the Belgians the lead in the first half when they sat deep for long periods before countering at speed with Romain Duvekot and Etienne Tynevez wreaking havoc.
Guillaume Hellin made it 2-0 early in the second half but the sparrows were never going to lie down and they pulled one back when Zach Wallace poked home in the 44th minute.
The Belgians reacted brilliantly with Tynevez’s goal just beating the buzzer at the end of Q3 to extend the lead to 3-1 and then Hendrickx tacked on another from a corner.
Dennis Warmerdam deflected in to get one back with 13 minutes to go and they had the chance to cut the gap further but Marc Miralles was off target with his penalty stroke.
They also were denied another after a lengthy penalty corner review before Hendrickx made the game safe with his third corner in the closing minute.