Men’s State League 1 Round 18 Review
Upsets from Granville Rage and Hawkesbury City SC produced another pulsating weekend of Men’s State League 1.
Zachary Watters’ four-goal performance led Granville Rage over Hills Brumbies in our Match of the Round.
Match of the Round: Hills Brumbies 2 v Granville Rage 4
Zachary Watters lit up a brisk winter’s night out a Valentine Sports Park with a four-goal performance to down the Hills Brumbies.
Granville Rage certainly didn’t resemble the team at the foot of the table with the energy of their performance taking it to Hills Brumbies from the kick-off.
Marko Miljkovic highlighted the attitude with his fifth minute effort that rattled Jackson Franich’s crossbar.
Mark Giovenali’s side absorbed shots and the Brumbies delivered a gut-check in the ninth minute. Alexander McCracken was played in and fashioned his effort past Carl McMahon.
Conceding didn’t dampen the Rage’s spirits though – they continued to move the ball around and got their reward when Zachary Watters slid his effort underneath Franich for 1-all.
Watters was a magnet for chances tonight. In the 29th minute a Terry Pannowitz cross just missed his head.
He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice when Jess Casey’s cross gave him enough space for the diving header and a 2-1 Rage lead.
All the momentum was with the Rage – David Harding was a strong presence in the midfield directing play and his combination with Watters almost produced a third goal with the former’s header landing safely in Franich’s hands.
The third came shortly after the resumption though – once again Zach Watters profited from his team’s crossing to head in his hat-trick and stun the fourth placed Hills Brumbies.
Granville Rage continued to fuel the on fire Watters with chances as the striker used his speed to round the ‘keeper in the 58th minute but couldn’t finish.
He followed that up with an audacious bicycle kick from a delightful chipped ball from Harding but Franich stood tall to deny him.
Watters wasn’t to be denied his fourth – a 79th minute ball lobbed over the defense found the striker to settle proceedings.
Hills Brumbies kept fighting until the final whistle and crawled one back in the 88th minute James Maguire was on the spot to turn home for 4-2.
Afterwards the Granville coach was relieved to momentarily be off the bottom with victory.
“It was good to get a win after so many close calls. Overall it was a good team performance,” he said.
“Hopefully it is the first one of many [to avoid finishing last] but the whole team played well tonight.”
Conversely Mark Giovenali wasn’t pleased.
“Look it wasn’t the result that disappointed me but the [circumstances] that led to the reshuffling of the side,” he said
It made it awkward for us especially using two players who just played ninety minutes.”
Match Stats
Hills Brumbies 2 (McCracken ‘9, Maguire ’88)
Granville Rage 4 (Watters ’18, ’31, ’47 and ’79)
Hills Brumbies: Prothero, Pivato, Maguire, Maralit, Franich, Pace(G. Giovenali ’45), Clark(Kelshaw ’86), Mccracken, Robertson(Hoyer ’45), Dakhel and Savetta
Subs not used: R. Giovenali and Morrow
Granville Rage: McMahon, Bottalico, Luc, Harding, Bortolazzo, Pannowitz, Bobo, Watters, Casey,Miljkovic and Paras
Western NSW Mariners 0 v Dulwich Hill 3
Dulwich Hill FC has moved into third position after a dominant win out west.
After a scoreless first half, Dully gained control through a Stephen Hrysanthos converted penalty.
Hrysanthos earned a share of the top scorer with Zakeriya Elrich, with his brace in Mudgee.
Tireless midfielder James Morrison finished off the Mariners as Dulwich Hill built finals momentum.
Hawkesbury City SC 3 v Balmain Tigers 1
Hawkesbury have done it again – producing a memorable display to beat Balmain Tigers.
The Tigers edged the contest and eventually led 1-0 at the break thanks to a Jonathan Gowdy penalty.
The Hawks swooped in the final half hour – Benjamin Gough brace made it 2-1 before James Mawein smashed home a third.
Joe Di Giulio lamented his team’s worst performance of the season in leading up the Westfield FFA Cup against the Melbourne Victory.
Rydalmere Lions 0 v Gladesville Ryde Magic 0
The second placed Lions were held by a magical performance from Gladesville captain coach and ‘keeper Kiriakos Tohouroglou.
Tohouroglou was on another level all night repelling every Rydalmere Lions attack with ease.
Afterwards Rydalmere boss Tony Basha likened Tohouroglou’s performance as immortal.
The well-travelled goalkeeper, who is well known for being a former star in Greek Football was the difference in earning his side a valuable point.
North Shore Mariners 2 v Inter Lions 1
North Shore Mariners were made to work for their sixteenth victory of the season at Lily’s Football Centre.
Inter Lions shocked the leaders with 30th minute goal from striker Rosario Occhipinti.
Maya Gustavo Valiente’s chalked off effort had North Shore Mariners sweating before Thomas Bentham saved their blushes with an equaliser.
Joe Haywood’s men finally unlocked the stubborn Lions defense late in the second half with Mark Mcalpine’s winner.
Stanmore Hawks 3 v Nepean FC 0
Stanmore were unconvincing but banked a vital three points at Arlington Oval this afternoon.
New import Daniel Doritis gave them the perfect start with a header from a corner for 1-0.
Midfield general Sam Awad combined with Stefanos Liavas for the latter to double their lead.
They added a third to make it comfortable but coach Soteri Mavrou admitted there was stuff to work on before taking on the Rage.
It was a tough few days for the visitors who backed up after playing their remaining 45 minutes from their washed out clash against Rydalmere Lions on Thursday where they went down 3-1.
-By Justin Davies, Men’s State League 1 reporter
