The West Canberra Lightning and the North Canberra Fire shared twelve goals in an epic Round 3 match at Daramalan College to kick off the latest round of action in the Capital Futsal League, the highly anticipated match ending in an enthralling 6-6 draw.
North Canberra Fire got off to a flying start as a goal from Riley Brown inside three minutes gave them the lead, which was doubled when Samuel Thomson swept home with his first touch of the encounter just three minutes later.
Sam Carters responded for Lightning, but when Green banged in his first of the evening to put Fire 3-1 up the league leaders appeared to be in the groove. The Lightning have an experienced outfit however and they turned the match around to be ahead by a goal at the break.
Nicholas Subasic and Ashley Blount struck in quick succession, the latter scoring his first CFL goal, before Jason Farrell, on his Lightning debut, arrowed his team ahead with five minutes to go until the interval.
Daniel Fulton extended the Lightning lead four minutes after the resumption leaving Fire with it all to do, and yet they did it, Green pulling one back with his tenth goal of the season before Luca Florez made it 5-5 with thirteen minutes to play.
A super goal from Subasic put Lightning back in front and that looked to be that. Florez had other ideas though and his exquisite turn and finish past Raymond Moon drew the teams all-square once more and ensured honours ended very much even.
There was a second draw on Saturday night as the Queanbeyan-Palerang Power staged an incredible comeback from 0-3 down to earn a point against UC Stars, scoring three times in little more than a minute to force a 3-3 stalemate.
With neither of these teams having managed a point between them in the opening two rounds the tension was high throughout the match and with Mahmoud Halawani in the Power goal and Jamie-Lee Guo in the Stars net making several outstanding saves, the match was goalless for ten minutes.
Vinnie Brasil broke the deadlock for the Stars with a deflected shot on the ten-minute mark, the goal separating the teams at the break.
The Stars managed to increase their lead in the second stanza as Michael Moscaritolo lifted a fine finish over the advancing Halawani in the 29th minute, before Andrew Aitchison drilled a low strike into the bottom corner just two minutes later.
At 3-0 it appeared it was all over, but the Power had different ideas. David Jenkins began the comeback with a goal immediately from the kick-off and, barely seconds later, Martin Santos calmly finished when played in down the channel for 2-3.
Incredibly, the Power were suddenly firing and Jenkins crashed home the equaliser to restore parity and, despite both teams having good opportunities to win it, a draw was a fair result at the end of a magnificent match.
The match between the South Canberra Swift and ANU Apex was postponed due to a leak from the roof of the venue directly over the pitch and will be replayed at a later date.
MEN
Friday 11 November
West Canberra Lightning 6 (Carters 10’, Subasic 13’ 34’, Blount 13’, Farrell 15’, Fulton 24’) North Canberra Fire 6 (Brown 3’, Thomson 6’, Green 12’, 25’, Florez 27’, 39’)
Saturday 12 November
Queanbeyan-Palerang Power 3 (Jenkins 31’, 32’, Santos 31’) UC Stars 3 (Brasil 10’, Moscaritolo 29’, Aitchison 31’)
Sunday 13 November
South Canberra Swift v ANU Apex – Match Postponed
TABLE
TEAM | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | PTS | |
1 | Fire | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 40 | 11 | +29 | 7 |
2 | Lightning | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 15 | 11 | +4 | 5 |
3 | Apex | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 11 | +6 | 4 |
4 | Swift | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 14 | 6 | +8 | 3 |
5 | Stars | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 13 | 30 | -17 | 1 |
6 | Power | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 36 | -30 | 1 |
LEADING SCORERS
10 Maxx GREEN (Fire)
8 Samuel THOMSON (Fire)
7 Luca FLOREZ (Fire)
4 Riley BROWN (Fire), Patrick SHORE (Apex), Bailey SORENSON (Fire), Nicholas SUBASIC (Lightning), Own GOALS
3 Lucas ALCAZAR-STEVENS (Swift), Daniel FULTON (Lightning), Clyde HOLO (Stars), David JENKINS (Power), Brad MALONE (Fire), Edward MCCARTHY (Swift), Juan Sebastian OSPINA (Swift), Kai THORNTON (Apex), Blaise VLAZLOVSKI (Apex)
2 Julian BRITTON (Apex), Sam CARTERS (Lightning), Alistair DAVIS (Fire), Sherab GUO (Stars), Hamed JADEER (Stars), Jackson PAESLER (Swift), Luke STEVENS (Apex)
1 Andrew AITCHISON (Stars), Ashley BLOUNT (Lightning), Vinnie BRASIL (Stars), Michael CAHILL (Power), Jenno CERUTI (Apex), Connor FALUSI (Stars), Jason FARRELL (Lighting), Jake FITZGERALD (Apex), Brett FORWARD (Lightning), Lachlan HARRINGTON (Stars), Alen JAMES (Swift), Robert MCKAY (Fire), Bruno MELO (Apex), Michael MOSCARITOLO (Stars), Michael NOLAN (Lightning), Marko RATHOUSKI (Stars), Daniel ROBERTS (Swift), Martin SANTOS (Power), Jordan SELEMS (Power)