Round 11 and 12 Review – Futsal Premier League Open Women’s
2019/20 Women’s Futsal Premier League round-11 had Inner West Magic beat Enfield Allstars 5-1, followed on Saturday by Mountain Majik versus Mascot Vipers, Eastern Suburbs Hakoah against Campbelltown Quake, and UTS Northside face Boomerangs FS.
Round-12 Sunday action saw Mountain Majik defeat UTS Northside 6-4, Boomerangs FS downed Enfield Allstars 2-1, Inner West Magic held off Campbelltown Quake 4-2, and Eastern Suburbs Hakoah stunned Mascot Vipers 3-0.
The results meant the top five teams are separated by five measly points with a fine margin between agony and ecstasy: Inner West (24 points) now lead Easts (23), Mascot (22), Campbelltown (21) and Northside (19).
Enfield Allstars 1 () Inner West Magic 5 (Rhianna Pollicina 2, Ceyda Cambaz 2, Bianca Galic)
Mountain Majik 3 () Mascot Vipers 3 ()
Eastern Suburbs Hakoah 7 (Lareane Bachega, Kiara Farquhar, Paloma Goncalves Oliveira, Zoe Halpin, Tamires Souza 3) Campbelltown Quake 2 (Kylie Ledbrook, Antonia Sharp)
UTS Northside 4 (Daisy Arrowsmith 2, Sarah Roger, Genevieve Tucker) Boomerangs FS 2 (Ellen Brown, Elke Aitolu)
Mountain Majik 6 (Tara Pender 2, Monique Holder 3, Bethany Gordon) UTS Northside 4 (Sarah Roger, Alexia Guerinoni, Genevieve Tucker, Heidi Caspers)
Boomerangs FS 2 (Bronte Pyke, Madeleine Pyke) Enfield Allstars 1 (Olivia Hardaker)
Inner West Magic 4 (Rhianna Pollicina, Ailish McDonagh 2, Amy Dahdah) Campbelltown Quake 2 (Kylie Ledbrook, Linda Dudek)
Mascot Vipers 0 Eastern Suburbs Hakoah 3 ()
Round-11 games
Inner West down Enfield
Inner West Magic scooted away from a resistant Enfield Allstars to win 5-1 at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre on Friday night.
A stubborn Enfield held Inner West in the first half, Rhianna Pollicina and Ceyda Cambaz giving Magic a tight 2-1 advantage at the changeover.
But it was one-way traffic in the second as Cambaz added another straight after the restart, Bianca Galic pushed the lead to 4-1 on the half-hour and Pollicina rounded out the victory with a fifth goal 10 minutes from time.
It’s the third time Pollicina’s scored in 10 matches over a regular season course – only three other players have done it over the past eight seasons – Doris Osman (2013/14) and Ashlie Crofts (2018/19) achieved it for Mountain Majik and Filiz Urkanci for Mascot in 2012/13.
Pollicina also equaled Brittany Palmobi’s Inner West record for scoring more than one goal in a match – six times during a regular season.
Magic maestro Matteo Maiorana didn’t blink an eyelid during the emphatic performance.
“It was a straight-forward victory for our girls and we didn’t really get out of first gear,” he said. “It was an expected win and we had one eye on Sunday’s Quake game.”
Mountain, Mascot stalemate
Mountain Majik and Mascot Vipers fought out an epic 3-3 draw at Valentine Sports Park on Saturday afternoon to make it a traffic jam points ladder.
The home side scored first through Nadia Nisbet nearing the quarter-hour mark but he Mascot response was swift, Emily Kos levelling almost immediately only to see Maddison Gardoni restore Mountain’s lead just before halftime.
Vipers player Sienna Fraser equalised a second time with 15 minutes left to play before Monique Holder returned Majik in front within minutes of a see-sawing match.
With time running out it, Stephanie Augoustis was the hero for Mascot with a late goal that ensured both sides shared the points.
Easts smack Campbelltown
The girls from the east proved they’re ready to play finals football with a blowout 7-2 win over frontrunners Campbelltown Quake at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre on Saturday afternoon.
Early Campbelltown blows equaled opportunities gone begging and the first goal of the game came from a controversial moment – a seemingly visible Easts freekick soon turned penalty which Tamires Souza made no mistake in sending it past Briana Clarke to make it 1-0.
Souza would prove crucial again, taking on Quake’s Renee Rollason and sucking in an advancing Clarke to deftly play a back-post ball to on open player for a 2-0 scoreline.
Hakoah’s Zoe Halpin soon after proved that headers do exist in futsal following a great ball from the Easts keeper saw Halpin guide the ball past Clarke from a metre outside the D.
A more determined Campbelltown took the court in the second half, Kylie Ledbrook and Linda Dudek providing a glimmer of hope for the visitors with Ledbrook scoring her first goal in purple colours.
The fightback was short-lived though as an open back-post the constant threat for Quake and another goal from that court position earned the easterners a 4-1 break.
Campbelltown went to a fifth-man powerplay and a tidy Rollason ball saw Antonia Sharp slot one home halve the deficit and a flurry of Quake chances were defused by some determined Hakoah defence.
A triple-save in the D from Easts saw a lucky clearance drift into an empty Quake net and as the visitors pushed, Easts bagged a few extras as consolation in their comfortable five-goal victory – Souza finishing with a hat-trick to add her name to a 10th scoresheet this summer.
Campbelltown coach Mel Keith wants more from her side in the big games.
“Not good enough today against a fast-moving and aggressive Hakoah side,” she said. “Credit to Easts – they capitalised when we were poor and put everything on the line in defense.”
“We will learn from this though and need to step it up coming into the end of the season as it’s claustrophobic on the points ladder [three points separating the top five teams].”
It was Hakoah’s first win over Campbelltown and the first time they’ve won three straight league games – also their second-highest goal tally in a match and second-highest winning margin (they beat Mascot 9-2 last summer).
UTS Northside v Boomerangs FS
UTS Northside delivered the goods in a 4-2 win over Boomerangs FS at PCYC Dee Why on Saturday night that placed them within points of top spot.
The northerners won both halves 2-1 with Daisy Arrowsmith netting a double to go with Sarah Roger and Genevieve Tucker goals. Ellen Brown and Elke Aitolu scored for Boomerangs.
UTS Northside coach Danny Beauchamp hoped the result would be a platform to leap into the playoffs.
“The girls played very well today and deserved the victory,” he said. “Special mention to Gen tucker and Sarah Roger who played their best games so far this season.”
“It’s now a big challenge for us is to repeat [this performance] for the remaining rounds.”
Round-12 games
Mountain down Northside
Mountain Majik put themselves back in the playoff picture with a determined 6-4 win against UTS Northside at Hawkesbury Indoor Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The home side put on the second-half afterburners after the teams headed to the dressing rooms locked at 2-2, the result leaving both sides just outside the top-four with two games left to play.
Tara Pender opened the Mountain account inside two minutes but Northside stars Sarah Roger and Genevieve Tucker struck soon after to give UTS a 2-1 lead within the first 10 minutes of action.
Majik’s Monique Holder joined in with a goal two minutes before halftime to square proceedings up and a Tara Pender strike on the half-hour put Mountain back in front 3-2, Holder extending the margin shortly after.
It was Northside’s turn again as Alexia Guerinoni and Heidi Caspers goals tightened the screws, but it was to be Majik’s day as Bethany Gordon scored and Holder completed her hat-trick with three minutes left to finalise a 6-4 scoreline.
UTS coach Danny Beauchamp said his side must improve just to feature in the post-season.
“Unfortunately the girls didn’t play to their potential again today,” he said. “Now we must win our next games to make the finals.”
The 4-6 defeat equaled Northside’s highest scoring combined goal tally (they lost 3-7 to Campbelltown two summers ago), and it also joined a 4-5 defeat to Majik in 2016/17 as the most goals they’ve scored in a game they didn’t win.
Boomerangs defeat Enfield
Boomerangs FS survived a second-half scare to beat Enfield Allstars 2-1 at the Q-One Indoor Sports Queanbeyan on Sunday afternoon.
Bronte Pyke and Madeleine Pyke goals gave the Territorians the start they were looking for as they 2-0 at oranges, but Enfield sprung into life in the second half, an Olivia Hardaker halving the margin to make it an exciting finish to the game, but Boomerangs holding on for a victory that will consign Allstars to this season’s wooden spoon.
Inner West overtake Campbelltown
Inner West Magic reigned supreme over Campbelltown Quake for the third time this season to throw up the toughest fight for a first place finish the competition has seen in years.
The opening exchanges at Valentine Sports Park on Sunday afternoon were fast paced and direct and it was evident from kickoff that this match was going to be a crowd pleaser.
Rhianna Pollicina added to her century tally early with a powerful strike off a corner that put Inner West ahead but Campbelltown were quick to respond with Malone sending wide a tap-in before Kylie Ledbrook bobbed up for her second goal in as many weeks, finishing off a nice Renee Rollason ball to even the scores again.
Linda Dudek and Ledbrook would get further chances for Quake as would Amy Dahdah and Pollicina for Magic, both keepers coming to the party for their respective sides.
Dudek was making herself known to the Magic defense and a shot on goal saw Pollicina handball, but the sharpshooter got a lifeline by staying on the court uncarded.
Inner West custodian Sophie Magus then stood tall with an outstanding penalty save taken by Rollason to deny Campbelltown from taking the lead before halftime.
The second half took off from where the first finished and Quake took first blood as Rollason rolled Pollicina on the halfway line, continued her run through a shirt pull and played the ball to Dudek who slammed home for a 2-1 advantage.
Magic don’t ever leave the party though, and soon after perennial scorer Pollicina finished off a Dahdah set-up to lock the scores up a third time.
It was Inner West’s generation-next that combined for their third goal, some brilliant movement seeing Gemma Gray find space who brilliantly cut the ball back to her 17’s team mate Ailish McDonagh to slam home and take a 3-2 lead.
Quake had a flurry of chances with unbalanced numbers which they either put wide or were saved well by Magus, and Campbelltown spurned a 3-on-1 break in the dying minutes only to see Ceyda Cambaz steal the ball, counter and find Dahdah for the lethal 4-2 clincher.
Inner West have now won nine matches in a row against their old foes and coach Matteo Maiorana was beaming.
“Magic versus Quake are always tough, tense games full of passion,” he said. “Our girls are always switched on when Quake are in town and tonight was no different.”
“Our five senior women were phenomenal, as was were Ailish and Gem from the 17s – we’ve changed things up a little bit in recent weeks and they have definitely helped.”
“I’d like to give a special mention to Quake goalkeeper [Briana] Clarke who I thought was exceptional today; some of her saves were world class, and I think the competition’s best two keepers were on show today.
“Incredibly, after a mixed season we find ourselves in first place but have two huge matches against two very good teams [Campbelltown and Easts] to ensure we stay there.”
Quake coach Mel Keith was exhausted following an epic weekend.
“What a game!” she said. “It’s tough to lose, but both teams played outstanding.”
“If anything we need to be more clinical but, after a poor game yesterday [losing to Easts 7-2], the girls turned it on today.”
“I’m proud of the efforts but it’s made the run home tough with must-win games coming up.”
Easts shut out Mascot
Eastern Suburbs Hakoah were in rip-snorting form to cleansheet former comp leaders Mascot Vipers 3-zip at All Sorts Indoor Sports Centre on Sunday night.
The result saw Mascot overtaken by both Easts and Inner West ahead of a crunch match against fourth-placed Campbelltown next week.
Next games
2019/20 Women’s Futsal Premier League round-13 Saturday action sees Campbelltown Quake tackle Mascot Vipers at Minto Sports Stadium (3.50pm), Boomerangs FS host Mountain Majik at Q-One Indoor Sports Queanbeyan (4.50pm), Inner West Magic face UTS Northside at Valentine Sports Park (5.20pm), and Enfield Allstars play Eastern Suburbs Hakoah at Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre (7.10pm).
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