1st XI Soccer – SPC d BGS – July 26, 2017

St Patrick’s College 2 defeated Ballarat Grammar 0

GOALS: Josh DeVoogel, Lachlan Wright

BEST: James King, Dennis Wanjiku, Josh DeVoogel, Tiernan Somers, Mitch Ralston, Darby Gaffney, Talan Flockhart, Jude Jeandet, Alex Worthington

The coach had been concerned about Grammar and especially their senior BDSA players Antonetti and Huggett and this game played out with their danger on show -“ enough to see Grammar rated above College after this hard fought match.

Our goal was achieved and that was to win which we did comfortably enough but it wasn’t until the last 6 minutes that we scored a second goal to put the decision beyond doubt.

A couple of rule breakers in the first three minutes saw undue pressure put on our backmen – having to recover their composure after turn overs deep in our defense.

Back passing too close to forwards and holding the ball too long in the centre of the ground could have brought us undone, but for some desperate extra coverage from the midfielders.

Dennis Wanjiku was certainly not to blame and he started in hot form as he passed down the wing to Darby Gaffney who passed inside to Mark Ritchie who gave Lachlan Wright possession, but adjudged offside.

Some loss of possession by central players trying to take on seasoned players saw a serious turn over and but for three defenders closing Huggett’s view of the goals, we could have gone one down.

We again saw a sharp build up via Dennis to Darby giving Lachlan a chance shot at goal which was desperately defended away for a corner.

The cross tipped over the assembled group went to no one (a pity Talan wasn’t on the field as he often took the position where the ball ended up). Darby gained a James King cross over and ran the ball deep before giving it back to Josh deVoogel and with his strong drive left of the keeper we scored our first.

We had awoken the bear and the team was challenged by their star players: Huggett ran through the lines but was stopped by a waiting Alex Baker with a great stop and Huggett broke through but was expertly picked off by James King.

Alex Worthington made his presence felt physically but also with a strong header off a Kingy just missing left of the goals.

Players knew that we needed to lift in the second half and the match became an enthralling and fierce paced affair.

Tiernan Somers gave us a great target up front and he threatened early with a header over the posts off Marcus Parini’s corner kick. Alex Worthington was again a strong presence for us off the right wing, giving Tiernan a chance inside the box and then missing to the right with a strong drive from well out. –

Josh deVoogel’s captaincy from the centre could be heard urging on all for a more disciplined effort as the game continued to go forward and back at great pace and effort.-

We were able to swing fresh legs into the match as players were being extended to their limits and it perhaps helped to get the break through inside the last 10 minutes of the game.

Tiernan made a brilliant collect near the centre of the ground and with tremendous pace he ran his opponent deep into the right corner before he whipped back an excellent cross over the keeper’s reach to Lachlan Wright who used the space available to perfection to hit home the second goal.

That goal was enough to put it beyond doubt and the disappointed Antonetti added a twist to the finals with an undisciplined act to short change Grammar at the finish.

They meet College next week while we take on the unreliable High School in our Semi Final.

They have some danger up forward and most likely will find unheralded players added to their squad in the next week, but we are playing well enough to win through to the BAS Final.

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