- News release
Rotterdam and SCHC were last season’s flying starters
Ten days to go until the start of the Staatsloterij Hoofdklasse. From now on, we’ll be counting down to the start of the league with a statistic every day. Today, we’re focusing on the men’s team from Rotterdam and the women’s team from SCHC.
Last season, Rotterdam were the standout team in the men’s league: in ten of their 22 matches, the team took the lead within the first ten minutes. Only Oranje-Rood, winners of the regular season, managed to do so just as often.
That early dominance by Rotterdam paid off: coach Erik van Driel’s side finished an impressive second in the league and ultimately clinched the championship in the play-offs, at the expense of defending champions Amsterdam.
Rotterdam’s ten early goals came from the sticks of no fewer than eight (!) different players: Pepijn van der Heijden scored three times, whilst Olivier Hortensius, Jeroen Hertzberger, Tjep Hoedemakers, Nick van Trigt, Thijs van Dam, Guus Jansen and Steijn van Heijningen each scored once.
In the women’s competition, coach Robbert van de Peppel’s SCHC struck most frequently in the first ten minutes: eleven times. The team owed this mainly to striker Jip Dicke, who scored five early goals. She did so each time from open play. Yibbi Jansen (three goals), Pien Dicke (two) and Elzemiek Zandee (one) rounded off the tally of eleven.
