2018 BAS Soccer Grand Final

St Patrick Senior’s 3 defeated Ballarat Clarendon College 1

BEST: Jordan Armstrong, Mitch Ralston, Jude Jeandet, Alex Baker, Leighton Lauton, Darby Gaffney, Jayden Ashmore

GOALS: Alex Baker, Darby Gaffney, Lachlan Wright

ASSIST:– Connor Ascough

Words cannot do justice when writing a report on the drama and outcome of this particular game of soccer -“ the Beautiful Game.-

Ballarat Clarendon College did a great job of physically putting us off our game and making the most of their opportunities and led for all but the last 15 minutes or less and yet they lost 3-1. They will be very disappointed with the result but we can doubly be enthused with how we fought back and took the BAS Championship from them.-

Congratulations to the 2018 St Patrick’s College Senior Soccer Team!

Alex Baker found Lachlan Wright on the right side and he put a dangerous ball across our goals in the early minutes of the match, but generally our delivery wasn’t neat enough early on as College were attacking our players who gained possession in the middle of the ground.

We couldn’t sight up our forwards and their two centre backs were dominant in the air.

They used a strong physicality in all quarters of the pitch and we were relying on Jude Jeandet, Bailey Burgess and our two left and right backs Connor O’Callaghan and Patrick Heagney to keep us out of trouble.

Jude provided a crucial save when we were under extreme pressure as their forwards put together passes and Bailey got us out of another tight situation when he became last man against a menacing attack.

However, worse was to come as College drove through on our left flank and their smart forward went deep and outplayed our defenders before shooting a great strike against the far post from a tight position.

We could make little progress against their continued harassment across the centre. Henry North coming on for the latter part of the half and gaining possessions, caused their defenders to question their self-belief which could well have been telling in the end.-

A re-evaluation of the situation at half time saw Leighton Lauton bolster the centre presence and his clean touch and passing had an immediate effect in releasing some of the pressure on Alex Baker and Mitch Ralston.

Mitch was able to find Neill Nilwiset on the wing and on receiving the ball back 30 meters out from goals, he was dealt with unmercifully by their player and received a free kick.

Alex Baker hit the drive powerfully and it cracked into the horizontal bar but came out.

In a play of déjà vu shortly afterwards Mitch was brought down for the sixth time -“ this time 25 meters out. Alex this time got the ricochet off the bar perfectly and it bounced over the line -“ Jordan Armstrong heading it back in just in case.

It was Jordan again shortly after who broke through off the right wing and centered the ball to Connor Ascough. He controlled the ball and faced the goals with three defenders between him and the prize. He feigned to his left and as they surged that way, he calmly flicked the ball out to a waiting Darby Gaffney who was left with the ball inside the 18 yards and only the keeper to beat -“ he made no mistake and put away the winner. It was a sublime piece of theatre to watch.

Jordan again cut through off our right side and was fouled with judgement inside the 18 yards and Lachlan Wright took the kick from the spot to gain our third goal inside 10 minutes to complete the turn around. Jordan finished off with two more shots that went over after doing all the good work.-