State League 2 – Round 16 Report
The top-four State League 2 teams all lost in round 16 as teams outside the top-five announced their territorial intentions.
Southern Bulls stunned leaders Stanmore Hawks 1-0, Hurstville City Minotaurs came from behind to beat Fairfield City Lions 2-1, University of NSW trounced Hurstville FC 4-0, Enfield Rovers held-off Southern Branch 3-2 and Western Condors defeated Schofields Scorpions 5-0 to add 11 different herbs and spices to the State League 2 marinade.
So Stanmore (27 points) maintained a five point gap to Fairfield and Branch (22) with Condors (21) jumping Hurstville FC (20) to round out the top five. Bulls (20), Uni (18), Minotaurs (15), Belmore (14) and a surging Enfield (12) are still well in the mix.
A Mauricio Navarrete double for Condors moved him to 10 winter goals, six behind Stanmore’s Neil Philippou and one ahead of Belmore’s Pablo Cardozo. Jonathan Joannidis (Hurstville FC), Nick Paradisis (Stanmore) and Joel Silvestre (Uni) have eight goals each, Minotaurs Haisam Morhi seven and Bulls charger Troy Eedy six.
Round 16
University of NSW 4 (Joel Silvestre 2, Rocco Luca 1, Patrick Lloyd 1) Hurstville 0
Hurstville City Minotaurs 2 (Kyriacos Phylactou, Angelo Vagenas) Fairfield City Lions 1 (Christian Ekwerike)
Stanmore Hawks 0 Southern Bulls 1 (Paul Kotwica)
Schofields Scorpions 0 Western Condors 5 (Ian Peti, Rafaele Sapio, Michael Lalik, Mauricio Navarrete x2)
Southern Branch (Jordan Haddow, Joel Wilson) Enfield Rovers 3 (Adel Ahmed, Adrian Castro, Matthew Picone)
Rd 13: Stanmore Hawks vs Enfield Rovers washed out
Rd 9: Belmore United 1 University of NSW 2
Grade 20
University of NSW 4 (A. Coutinho 2, J. Silvestre 1, M. Nyawasha 1) Hurstville FC 0
Hurstville City Minotaurs 0 Fairfield City Lions 4 (N. Attard 2, P. Pazzona 1, S. Chabok 1)
Southern Branch 0 Enfield Rovers 3 (M. Hird 2)
Stanmore Hawks 5 (A. Mitroyiannis 1, C. Bakoulis 1, A. Stasi 1, T. Masch Marchiori 1, P. Theodosi 1) Southern Bulls 0
Rd 9: Belmore United 1 University of NSW 3
Uni smash Hurstville
A 4-0 University of NSW whitewash of Hurstville FC at David Phillips Field on Saturday afternoon has turned Uni’s polite tapping at the top-five window into a front-door banging of the fists as the ‘student army’ marched to within two points of fifth-placed Hurstville… and catch-up games still in hand.
A tense opening deceived many as the home side ran riot in the second-half, Joel Silvestre scoring twice to compound Rocco Luca and Patrick Lloyd goals and exact sweet revenge for Uni following their 4-0 fifth-round loss to FC.
Uni have a tight schedule trying to fit five postponed matches into the remaining six weeks of competition and while their late-season encroachment has many coaches looking over their shoulders, Jorge Piatta remains steadfastly measured.
“In football you can never be 100 per cent sure; it’s an unpredictable game no matter how organised you are, and so far the boys are doing a good job,” he said.
“We have young players working on a long-term goal for the club and they need to stay cool, calm and collected. We’ve already improved and our mission is to do well, so making finals would be fantastic for us; but with so many games to play it is not a good idea to predict anything now. All we can do is a good job and we’ll see what happens.”
Piatta also offered a beautiful insight on the true essence of this wonderful sport, and what it really means to be involved in state league football.
“I insist on the players to play nice, neat football because it’s good for the game, good for the boys, good for the club and good for the country. When you go to a cinema or restaurant you expect to see a good film or enjoy a good meal, and it’s the same with football – you want people to talk about the way how well the game was played. This is always about making better players – and that is always our philosophy.”
Hurstville coach Steve Zoric dipped his hat to Uni but always knew it’d be a tough assignment. “We were facing uphill battle from the start with three suspended, one player overseas for work and a couple of key players carrying injuries,” he said. “I didn’t think it’d be 4-0 but the boys tried hard and Uni played really well… they came out very strong in that second half.”
Zoric was one of many coaches riveted to the way State League 2 has panned out. “These recent results have really given teams outside the top-five a sniff, and now it’s even more essential to turn up and be more consistent.”
Bulls pluck Hawks
Several have come close but Southern Bulls gave State League 2 a real jolt following their gritty 1-0 defeat of competition leaders Stanmore Hawks at Arlington Oval on Sunday afternoon.
New Southern face Paul Kotwica made an immediate impact as his early first-half goal was all that separated the two sides at fulltime – ending a nine-game Hawks win-streak, and the first time they’ve been held scoreless this season.
Bulls coach Ramsin Shamon applauded his side’s determination. “We dominated from the beginning, put a goal away and held on for the win,” he said. “Overall it was a good performance and the players showed a lot of heart and worked hard for each other. There could’ve been more goals and it could’ve easily been a draw, but I think the boys deserved the win; especially as we worked hard at training.”
“We’ve been winning a bit ugly recently but today everything clicked and we were very organised and composed.”
Stanmore coach George Paradisis almost appreciated the loss. “It had to come and today the boys weren’t ready for it. They started very slow and couldn’t penetrate once they got numbers behind the ball. We tried hard but they defended well,” he said.
“I guess it’s better to lose now than in a knockout final, and we probably needed to lose a game as you could really see the cockiness in the team over the last few weeks… and that happens in any part of life. We’ve been brought back down to earth, and there’s a lot of good teams in this competition who will punish you if you don’t turn up to play.”
Minotaurs pierce Lions
Hurstville City Minotaurs capped off a celebratory weekend with a finely crafted come-from-behind 2-1 win over Fairfield City Lions at Punchbowl Oval on Sunday afternoon.
Good pressure from Fairfield resulted in an opening Christian Ekwerike strike but from there it was all Hurstville as Angelo Vagenas smashed in a 30m pearler to level the scores before halftime, and Minotaurs substitutes Haisam Morhi and Kyriacos Phylactou combined to score the winning goal just a few minutes from fulltime.
Hurstville’s first win in six weeks has sparked their finals interest as they lie five points outside the top-five and riding a wave of emotion following club icon Peter Sarikakis’ 60th birthday coinciding with the club’s annual gala event on Saturday night.
“To be there with all the people that made the club what it is today was a wonderful time for everyone, and I have very sore legs from dancing, but even better was the gesture from the boys today who played some fantastic football to win 2-1,” Sarikakis said.
“When you put in the effort [over the season] and it’s not going as you’d like it sometimes takes a moment like this to remind you that passion and desire maybe means more than success. We were down 1-0 and then Angelo Vagenas and the young kid Liam Stratten turned it around for us.”
“The second half went from one end to the other and it could’ve gone either way as Fairfield are a good side, but two players I had to start on the bench for missing training [Morhi and Phylactou] come on to score the winning goal – it’s amazing!”
“Even better than this, I was really touched that the players said they wanted to win for me; I can’t tell you how much I appreciate a gesture like that, and it just capped off the best weekend for the club.
“I don’t care so much about winning this competition, if we’re good enough to make the finals then we’ve got the same chance as anyone; I just want to finish the season together as a team. I do get criticised for trying to keep players together, but they’ve returned the loyalty and really sung the roof off the club to show their love for the Minotaurs.”
Lions coach Tony Basha said his team “died in the arse after 20 minutes” but didn’t want to take anything away from Hurstville’s day. “We were flat and didn’t show a hunger to win; some of the new boys were a bit hesitant and I guess the coaching staff has to take a bit of the blame,” he said. “To Hurstville’s credit they played well and deserved to win. There’ll be some changes before our next game [Tuesday night against].”
Rovers fetch Branch
Enfield Rovers made the trip south to Nowra and enjoyable return adventure as they held on for a 3-2 win over Southern Branch at Ison Park on Sunday afternoon.
Adel Ahmed broke the deadlock with a classy swivel at the top of the box and first-time hit that rifled the bottom corner for a 1-0 Enfield halftime lead, a handball penalty converted by Adrian Castro doubling the visitors’ advantage straight after the break.
When Matthew Picone cut inside a defender and dribbled around the keeper to make it 3-0 it looked like a Rovers walk in the park and very late goals to Branch duo Jordan Haddow and Joel Wilson only finalised the 3-2 final scoreline.
It was Enfield’s fourth straight win and they still haven’t moved out of 10th place but coach Andrew Montgomery was happy with the team’s direction.
“It needs to be a happy trip home when you go all that way, so a good win on the road is very pleasing,” he said. “After last week’s performance we talked about doing better and we worked on a few things and played well today. I’m disappointed to concede two goals and there’s still a lot ahead of us to do, but it’s an improvement.”
State League 2’s form sides Enfield and Uni meet next week and Montgomery was unashamedly debonair. “[I guess] given the table and games remaining Uni are title favourites and should be very confident coming into a game against a team coming second last on table.”
David Boscoscuro (filling in for Brod Crighton) accepted his side couldn’t get going in time to impact on the result. “We definitely didn’t give ourselves a good chance by allowing a few soft goals. We just weren’t smart enough at times; they defended deep and were swift and fast on the counter, so credit to them for that.”
Condors swoop Scorpions
Western Condors downed Schofields Scorpions 5-0 at the CSI Ground on Sunday afternoon, Ian Peti, Rafaele Sapio, Michael Lalik and a Maurcio Navarrete double turning a 2-0 halftime margin into a decisive victory.
Condors moved up one place to fourth following the result and coach Barry Zambrano was particularly pleased considering the number of teams lurking in the top-five shadows. “It was a comfortable win in pretty poor conditions that didn’t suit our style of football,” he said. “We had to work for it today and the surprising results this weekend have made things a whole lot more interesting.”
Next week’s games
It’s all Sunday games for round 17 of State League 2 (3pm first grade kickoffs). Fairfield City Lions play Enfield Rovers at Rydalmere Park, Western Condors meet Hurstville City Minotaurs at Calabria Sports Ground, Belmore United face Schofields Scorpions at Blick Oval, Hurstville FC tackle Stanmore Hawks at Hurstville Oval, Southern Branch welcome University of NSW to Ison Park, while Southern Bulls have the bye.
Three catch-ups are scheduled for Tuesday night (July 23) when Bulls and Minotaurs meet at Ernie Smith Reserve (8pm) to work out their round-13 result, Fairfield take on Condors in a round-13 clash at Valentine Sports Park (7.15pm), and Uni finally play their opening round fixture against Enfield at David Phillips Field (7.15pm).
