SPC defeat St Kevin’s College

St Patrick’s defeat valiant St Kevin’s

Score: St Patrick’s College 9. 5 (59) def St Kevin’s College 5. 9 (39)

Goal Kickers: Jackson Carrick, Sam White, Pat Fitzgibbon 2, Ezekiel Frank, Tom Williamson, Ben Simpson 1

Best Players: Leigh Spiteri, Mickitja Rotumah-Onus, Sam White, Hasker Dawborn, Joel Cowan, Yestin Eades

St Patrick’s College has emerged as 20-point victors in the annual contest against St Kevin’s College, despite both team having the same number of scoring shots.-

In a hard fought contest, it was clear from the beginning that St Kevin’s had full intentions of playing hard at the ball and were not going to be easy beats for the favoured St Patrick’s.-

SKC came to Ballarat with a clear game plan centring around the use of a short hit up kick, followed by a quick turn and play-on. This seemed to work well early as St Pat’s were failing to be accountable.

Two costly turnovers on the wing and at half forward for SPC gave St Kevin’s their two goals for the first half as the Paddy boys kicked five straight.

Tempers flared at times and it would be fair to say that St Kevin’s College should have been in the lead, as inaccurate kicking proved costly. The SKC team kicked five behinds along with their two goals in the first half.

Instead the home team which held a 13-point buffer at the main break.

In the third term the SPC boys started to get on top of their opponents as SKC began to fumble under the St Patrick’s pressure.

Goals to Jackson Carrick and Sam White in the third quarter, while St Patrick’s was kicking with the wind, extended the lead to 19 points at the last change.-

St Kevin’s College managed to get the deficit cut back to two goals with 15 minutes remaining. The visitors, though, continued the trend of not capitalising on a number of opportunities and two late goals to Pat Fitzgibbon ensured a 20-point win for the boys in the green, white and blue.-

Things did not all go to plan for SPC as Jacob Hopper and Jacob Wheelahan both sustained injuries during the match.-

In his first game of the season and first as Captain, Hopper came off midway through the second quarter with knee complaints while Wheelahan came off late in the game with a suspected shoulder injury.-

The extents of the injuries are unknown to this point.-

St Patrick’s College coach Mr Howard Clark was full of praise for the St Kevin’s outfit.-

-St Kevin’s have always been traditionally a strong APS school, they’re certainly in the top two or three schools in the system and they proved that after beating the favoured APS champions in Caulfield last weekend,- Mr Clark said.-

-They were probably the best side we’ve played this year-.

Howard Clark was also extremely happy to be able to field a full-strength side for the first time this year.-

-It’s exciting, it’s really exciting for all of us to be able to field a full strength group,- he said.

-It’s not often throughout the season we get opportunities like today so we really enjoyed it.-

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