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Kassel

HC Erlangen loses by a wafer-thin margin at fifth-placed Melsungen

Kassel, 11-22-2018

HC Erlangen suffered a defeat against fifth-placed Melsungen on the 14th matchday of the DKB German Handball League. After holding on to the lead over large stretches in a neck-and-neck race that went down to the wire, the visitors eventually succumbed to the club from North Hesse by the extremely narrow margin of 27:26.

The opening spell belonged to HC Erlangen. Nikolas Katsigiannis saved the first four shots by the home side, while Sellin, Steinert and Büdel scored to put the visitors 3:0 ahead in the 6th minute. After Erlangen missed twice, the MT tied the scores at 3:3 in the 10th minute. Shortly after that, the HC’s keeper Katsigiannis made two sensational saves to prevent MT from taking the lead and Petter Overby scored from the crease to make it 4:5. Erlangen’s defense displayed great fight, producing a turnover that enabled Christopher Bissel to stretch the gap to 4:6. HC Erlangen kept its nose ahead up to the 20th minute and went 10:7 in front. However, the club from Franconia did not manage to take the three-goal lead with it in at the break and the first half ended with the encounter tied at 14:14.

In the second half, the 3,521 fans in the Rothenbach Hall had to wait four minutes for the next goal. It was scored by Jan Schäffer, who snapped up the rebound under time pressure and buried it in the net (14:15). Erlangen’s defense functioned well and did not concede a goal for eight minutes. However, that changed when Allendorf scored from the wing (15:15). The MT went in front in the 39th minute, but Erlangen was successful in attack even when short-handed. After a pass by Michael Haaß on his return, Büdel tied the game at 16:16. MT Melsungen now got into the game better and better and adopted a compact 6:0 defensive formation. After his team conceded two goals in a row, HC’s Head Coach was forced to call a time out and prepare his team for the looming crunch time. The home side stepped up the pace in the final spell and went 22:19 ahead in the 49th minute. Yet Erlangen was not to shaken off and fought its way back into the game. When the home fans were already certain of victory with the score at 25:20, Nico Büdel – who finished with a haul of six goals – plucked up courage and scored four times in a row for his team. Mikkelsen struck to make it 27:25 with 30 seconds remaining, but even the goal by Christoph Steinert to close the gap to 27:26 did nothing to change the fact that the HC was not able to reap the rewards for its gutsy performance in the end.

Source: www.hc-erlangen.de