Hawkesbury share the spoils with West City Crusaders

The women?s match saw City come from behind twice to secure a dramatic 2-3 victory over their hosts. The locals had started the stronger and within four minutes they had secured a lead. A one two between Lauren Ralston and Toni Dempsey saw Ralston beat off the defence and smash the ball past the keeper and into the back of the net. Within two minutes there should have been a reply after Kristy Grbevski beat her marker down the right and crossed the ball to the far post where Amanda Lavric was unmarked. With an open goal Lavric managed to put the ball the wrong side of the post, but it sounded a warning of what was to come from her.
Hawkesbury failed to make the most of their opportunities from that point until the half time whistle with Kayleigh Koops doing a particularly good job of sweeping for West City. Right on the break Koops nearly capped off a great defensive half with a goal but she was denied through a great save from Michelle Dingwall in the Commodores goal.
Again the locals started strongly and a brisk passing interchange between Sam Muscat and Toni Dempsey saw Dempsey strike goalwards only for the ball to deflect off the post and away.
Koops then charged forward for West City and put in a great cross to Lavric who?s free header went into the goal for the equaliser. Two minutes later the home side was back in front when Kat Innes and Teigan Allen broke quickly and maximised their numbers over the goalkeeper effectively, with Innes putting the Commodores ahead 2-1.
Within a minute the score was level again after Laura Elliott managed to squeeze the ball past Dingwall and into the back of the net for West City. The game was then end to end but no really clear opportunities until the last minute. Allen lost the ball in a defensive mix up and Elliott pounced. She made the most of the chance by securing the winner with a great shot. The score ended 2-3 to West City.
The men?s game was full of drama even before the start with West City unable to field any of their normal goalkeepers due to incidents that had occurred in the youth game. They were left with just six players (only one substitute) and having to revolve the goal keeping duties amongst these players. For all that drama they held on strongly and actually came into the break at 0-0.
It was a poor half from the Commodores but credit must go to West City who defended well and also had opportunities to score on the break. In fact in the 12^th minute Ahmeti Gedikoglu stole the ball from the locals defence and fired the ball past Lionel DeSouza in the goal area only to see the ball bounce off the post. Then in the 23^rd minute he fired a powerful shot that was well parried by DeSouza. A minute later he set up Shahin Matanagh who back heeled the ball goalwards only for DeSouza to somehow get a hand to it and push it around the post on the ground.
Whatever was said at half time worked for the Commodores though. Within three minutes they had taken the lead when Geoff Turner played the ball to Scott Dingwall, proceeded to run around him and receive the return pass and then fire the ball home for a 1-0 lead.
In the 29^th minute the game was over as a competition with a very controversial decision. The referee awarded a penalty against Andre Mendes for handling the ball in the area. It may have been a penalty, although how one can get out of that situation when the ball is coming at that speed is a mystery, but then to make matters worse for West City Mendes was given a straight red card. West City would now have no substitutes. The penalty was well taken Bill Tsioumas to give the side a 2-0 lead.
In the 30^th minute Scott Dingwall set up brother Chris who scored at the far post before Daniel Murchison set up Turner for his second goal of the night.
From the 42^nd minute it was a parade of goals for the Commodores with Murchison scoring in the 42^nd, Scott Dingwall scoring in the 44th minute, and then Tsioumas scoring another three goals in three minutes to make his nights total four. At 10-0 down West City continued to fight and were well rewarded for their efforts with a late goal after Matanagh had held the ball up for Adam Woods (who had been goal keeper for the whole first half) who put the ball in the back of the net from the tightest of angles at the far post. It had been the catch-cry of the second half for the locals not to concede so this goal was fought hard over despite such a big scoreline.
Overall another top night of Futsal was played out, with plenty of goals and plenty of action. Two fightbacks in the women?s match and no goals in the first half before eleven goals were scored in the second period of the men?s match.