Another outstanding game of Futsal kicked off Round 5 of the Capital Futsal League as North Canberra Fire and West Canberra Lightning shared eight goals in a thrilling 4-4 draw at the Australian Institute of Sport Training Halls.
The point might not have helped either side in terms of closing the gap on the league leaders, but the competitive nature of the division was once again on show with the result in doubt right until the very end of a pulsating forty minutes.
The Fire led early through Riley Brown, only for Stephen Domenici to immediately level, but a brace of goals in two minutes from Elie Darwich and Luca Florez, had North Canberra 3-1 up and in a good place.
Ben Basser-Silk made sure the teams entered the changing rooms all-square though with a double before half-time, and it was his strike three minutes from the end to complete the hat-trick that secured the point after Brown, who moved onto five for the season, had restored Fire’s lead.
UC Stars claimed their fourth win from five with a 10-3 victory over Queanbeyan-Palerang Power at Daramalan College with Luca Macor bagging a hat-trick and seeing the Stars lead the league table on goal difference.
Stars led 4-1 at the interval after breaking the deadlock in the seventeenth minute and thereafter netting three times in the space of a minute to suddenly take the initiative and break the Power resistance.
Harry Billington opened the scoring and was swiftly followed on the scoresheet by both Macro and Zac Iglesias. Damian Colorado pulled one back for Power, only for Macor to strike his second of the half and take the Stars three clear when the teams broke for the interval.
Pedro Pereira made sure Power started the second-half in fine fashion, but the goal awoke the beast on Stars and Phakedi Manda (2), Iglesias, and Macor made the points secure. Alan Kapchanga reduced the arrears, but Angus Murray and Angelo Nguyen completed the scoring.
South Canberra Swift have also won four from five, moving onto twelve points with their own 10-3 win over ANU Apex, helped along by a treble from Jackson Paesler and another brace from Romeo Jambrek.
Incredibly, Jambrek has now scored two goals in each of the five games he has played for the Swift this season, without converting one into a hat-trick, but it mattered little as Swift romped to victory.
They scored five times in each half, early goals from Ryan Straub and Paesler, added to by Doug Woodiwiss, Patrick Shore and Jambrek, Cohen Smith having pulled Apex back into it at 2-1 in the eighth minute.
It was a similar tale in the second-half although Sherab Guo answered a brace from Paesler twice to keep Apex within a sniff but Sift turned on the afterburners again to seal the scoreline, an own goal from Theveshran Moodley, added to by Jambrek and Shore bringing up double figures by the end.
RESULTS
North Canberra Fire 4 (Brown 9’, 28’, Darwich 10’, Florez 11’) West Canberra Lightning 4 (Domenici 9’, Basser-Silk 14’, 18’, 37’)
South Canberra Swift 10 (Straub 2’, Paesler 3’, 21’, 35’, Woodiwiss 9’, Shore 15’, 40’ Jambrek 16’, 39’, Moodley 38’ (og)) ANU Apex 3 (Smith 8’, Guo 30’, 36’)
UC Stars 10 (Billington 17’, Macor 18’, 20’, 36’, Iglesias 18’, 33’, Manda 25’, 29’, Murray 38’, Nguyen 39’) QP Power 3 (Colorado 19’, Pereira 24’, Kapchanga 38’)
TABLE
| P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS | ||
| 1 | UC Stars | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 40 | 20 | +20 | 12 |
| 2 | South Canberra Swift | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 37 | 21 | +16 | 12 |
| 3 | West Canberra Lightning | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 23 | 22 | +1 | 7 |
| 4 | North Canberra Fire | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 21 | 15 | +6 | 4 |
| 5 | ANU Apex | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 16 | 34 | -18 | 3 |
| 6 | QP Power | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 15 | 40 | -25 | 0 |
TOP SCORERS
10: Romeo JAMBREK (Swift)
9: Anthony GIORGI (Stars)
8: Luca MACOR (Stars)
6: Nicholas PRATEZINA (Stars), Patrick SHORE (Swift)
5: Riley BROWN (Fire), Michael SOUTHAM (Lightning)
4: Marco GAYER (Swift), Phakedi MANDA (Stars), Braulio MELO (Apex), Joe MERMINGIS (Power), Jackson PAESLER (Swift)
3: Ben BASSER-SILK (Lightning), Stephen DOMENICI (Lightning), Zac PEELGRANE (Apex), Alessandro PENA (Swift), Nik POPOVICH (Lightning), Marko RATHOUSKI (Fire), Cohen SMITH (Apex), Ryan STRAUB (Swift), Nicholas SUBASIC (Lightning), Ethan YUEN (Fire), Own GOALS
2: Keiren ALLEN (Power), Cale BROWN (Stars), FERNANDO (Swift), Andrew FOX (Power), Josh GASPARI (Lightning), Sherab GUO (Apex), Maxx GREEN (Fire), Zac IGLESIAS (Stars), Jayde JAMES-WARD (Stars), Alan KAPCHANGA (Power), Nathen MEGIC (Lightning), Bruno MELO (Apex), Pedro PEREIRA (Power), Ryan STRAUB (Swift), Samuel THOMSON (Fire), Doug WOODIWISS (Swift)
1: Harry BILLINGTON (Stars), Jonathan CIMINELLI (Fire), Damian COLORADO (Power), Callum COOK (Power), Marcus CRISPE (Swift), Elie DARWICH (Fire), Connor FALUSI (Apex), Luca FLOREZ (Fire), Brett FORWARD (Lightning), Daniel FULTON (Lightning), Brandon HAWKER (Fire), William MANALO (Stars), Angus MURRAY (Stars), William NESS (Power), Angelo NGUYEN (Stars), Ibrahim OBEID (Fire), Andre OLIVIERA (Power), Michael RINAUDO (Stars), Tony SPASESKI (Swift), Jake WILSENER (Stars)
