North Canberra Fire ended the season with a victory, defeating semi-finalists West Canberra Lightning 6-3 in the last regular season match of the Capital Football League campaign.

The Fire needed an improbable thirty-goal winning margin to make the Semi-Finals, a task that was realistically insurmountable, but they set about getting the win they needed with a positive outlook.

That was rewarded with the game’s opening goal after eight minutes from a straightforward set-piece. Elie Darwich created it, firing a corner across the face of goal where Robert McKay stole in unmarked, left with the simple task of tapping into an unguarded goal as Benjamin Southam was left stranded.

Luke Stevens went close in response for Lightning, twice firing inches wide of the target, before being denied by Wilson Howden with a smart save. Howden was beaten later though as Ben Basser-Silk fire a shot goalwards from halfway with Chris Lee stepping across the line of the ball which found it’s way into the net.

There was a sense of déjà vu about the Fire’s second goal as they regained the lead with two minutes of the half remaining. Once more Darwich was the provider, once again a ball across the face of goal did for the Lightning, and once again a player was unmarked at the back post, Toby McPherson in the right place at the right time.

Defensively the Fire were looking solid, denying the Lightning with some organised defence and some inspired goalkeeping, and they were to increase the lead with a third goal eight minutes after the restart as Jono Ciminelli found Leon Thomson-Senanayake who scored from an acute angle.

And it was to get better for the Fire a minute later as Darwich got on the scoresheet himself, ramming home a thunderous drive to make it 4-1. Lightning wasn’t prepared to go down quietly though as Ashley Blount finished with a sneaky back-heel and Nichols Subasic struck with a cannon of a hit into the top corner.

That set up a dramatic conclusion, with Ciminelli setting up Bradley Malone to increase the Fire’s lead back to two and the same player sealed it, scoring into an open goal with seconds remaining to secure Fire the win.

RESULTS

Wed: North Canberra Fire 6 (McKay 8’, McPherson 18’, Thomson-Senanayake 28’, Darwich 29’, Malone 38’, 40’) West Canberra Lightning 3 (Basser-Silk 13’, Blount 33’, Subasic 34’)

TABLE

		P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	PTS
1	UC Stars	10	9	1	0	79	30	+49	28
2	South Canberra Swift	10	7	0	3	51	44	+7	21
3	West Canberra Lightning	10	4	2	4	58	56	+2	14
4	QP Power	10	3	1	6	53	53	0	10
5	North Canberra Fire	10	3	1	6	29	56	-27	10
6	ANU Apex	10	1	1	8	41	72	-31	4

 

TOP SCORERS

15 Jayde JAMES-WARD (Stars), Nick PRATEZINA (Stars)

13 Johnny HAJDU (Apex), Nicholas SUBASIC (Lightning)

12 Luca MACOR (Stars)

11 Marco GAYER (Power), Michael RINAUDO (Stars)

10 Nic DAHL (Stars)

9 Ben BASSER-SILK (Lightning), Ed MCCARTHY (Power), Alessandro PENA (Swift)

8 Elie DARWICH (Fire), FERNANDO Jorquera (Swift), Doug WOODIWISS (Power), Own GOALS

7 Lucas ALCAZAR-STEVENS (Swift), Ashley BLOUNT (Lightning), Stephen DOMENICI (Lightning), Daniel FULTON (Lightning), Nick RATHJEN (Stars)

6 Bailey SORENSON (Fire)

5 Aisosa IHEGIE (Swift), Nathen MEGIC (Lightning), Tony SPASESKI (Power), Atiya WARAGA (Swift)

4 Hassan ALNUWAYSIR (Swift), Connor FALUSI (Apex), Jake FITZGERALD (Apex), Marley JACKSON (Power), Bradley MALONE (Fire), Braulio MELO (Apex), Bruno MELO (Apex), Adam NEOU (Power), Robert TKATCHENKO (Stars)

3 Adrian DAWSON (Power), Bailey DICKINSON (Apex), Toby MCPHERSON (Fire), Jake WILSENER (Stars)

2 Elliot ALBERTO (Fire), Caleb CULLEN-RUA (Power), Dylan DEEP-JONES (Power), Daniel GIOVINAZZO (Lightning), Brandon HAWKER (Fire), William MANOLO (Stars), Angus PITKIN (Swift), Nik POPOVICH (Lightning), Jeremy SALEH (Power), David SESELJA (Swift), Callum SMITH (Lightning), Michael SOUTHAM (Lightning), Kai THORNTON (Apex), Max TRUSHELL (Apex)

1 Micheal ADAMS (Swift), Jenno CERUTI (Apex), Arnold CHOI (Power), Ryan DE VRIES (Apex), Jason FARRELL (Lightning), Sherab GUO (Apex), Alan KAPCHANGA (Power), Chris LEE (Lightning), Robert MCKAY (Fire), Van NGUYEN (Swift), Johnny PHAM (Swift), Leon THOMSON-SENANAYAKE (Fire)