A goal five minutes from time from Elie Darwich gave North Canberra Fire a narrow, but critical, 2-1 victory over Queanbeyan-Palerang Power in an oft-time fractious encounter at the Queanbeyan Indoor Sports Centre.
Darwich struck his third goal of the season to settle a tense fixture played on an enormous sized court, the arena being at the maximum length for international Futsal, allowing both teams to stretch the game high and wide. Ultimately, though that was to limit the goals.
Power was searching for a first win of the season and, after a goalless first twenty minutes, were first to strike three minutes after the resumption as Ezequiel Inochea recorded his second of the season.
The lead lasted a mere five minutes however and the Fore were to draw level as new recruit, the returning Elliot Alberto, scored for the second week in succession. That set up the opportunity for one of the teams to bag the matchwinner and it was Darwich who obliged.
Stephen Domenici bagged four goals as West Canberra Lightning kept themselves in contention for top spot with an exhilarating 8-5 victory over South Canberra Swift at Daramalan College.
The Swift burst out of the traps and were two to the good after only two minutes of play having opened the scoring after 58 seconds through an Alessandro Pena shot, before Fernando danced his way past a defender and rounded the goalkeeper for a quite spectacular strike.
Lightning though wasn’t too shaken and hit back with three goals in four minutes, a run started by a low drive from range by Domenici in the fifth minute. Suddenly, the momentum shifted, and Nik Popovich was able to crash home a shot into the bottom corner.
Michael Southam cracked home the third, and a fourth goal finished unerringly by Nicholas Subasic, turned the match on its head. Domenici extended the lead early in the second stanza, only for the Swift to come roaring back as Marco Gayer, Ryan Straub and Fernando brought it back to 5-5.
Almost immediately Popovich struck again to regain the initiative and that allowed Lightning some breathing space. With Swift resorting to fifth man, Lightning took advantage and Domenici added two from long distance, the first a stunner from deep inside his own territory, to seal the win.
The fixture between UC Stars and ANU Apex was postponed after the match officials decreed that the court was dangerous due to water on the playing surface.
RESULTS
QP Power 1 (Inochea 23’) North Canberra Fire 2 (Alberto 28’, Darwich 35’)
West Canberra Lightning 8 (Domenici 5’, 21’, 39’, 40’, Popovich 8’, 29’, Southam 9’, Subasic 20’) South Canberra Swift 5 (Pena 1’, Fernando 2’, 28’, Gayer 21’, Straub 26’)
ANU Apex v UC Stars – Match Postponed
TABLE
| P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS | ||
| 1 | South Canberra Swift | 7 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 60 | 30 | +30 | 15 |
| 2 | UC Stars | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 44 | 23 | +21 | 15 |
| 3 | West Canberra Lightning | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 39 | 31 | +4 | 13 |
| 4 | North Canberra Fire | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 26 | 20 | +6 | 7 |
| 5 | ANU Apex | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 20 | 42 | -22 | 3 |
| 6 | QP Power | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 17 | 60 | -43 | 0 |
TOP SCORERS
14: Romeo JAMBREK (Swift)
9: Anthony GIORGI (Stars)
8: Marco GAYER (Swift), Luca MACOR (Stars), Alessandro PENA (Swift), Nik POPOVICH (Lightning)
7: Stephen DOMENICI (Lightning), Jackson PAESLER (Swift), Patrick SHORE (Swift)
6: Riley BROWN (Fire), Nicholas PRATEZINA (Stars), Cohen SMITH (Apex), Michael SOUTHAM (Lightning), Nicholas SUBASIC (Lightning)
5: Phakedi MANDA (Stars), Braulio MELO (Apex), Ryan STRAUB (Swift)
4: Ben BASSER-SILK (Lightning), FERNANDO (Swift), Joe MERMINGIS (Power), Own GOALS
3: Harry BILLINGTON (Stars), Elie DARWICH (Fire), Josh GASPARI (Lightning), Jayde JAMES-WARD (Stars), Zac PEELGRANE (Apex), Marko RATHOUSKI (Fire), Doug WOODIWISS (Swift), Ethan YUEN (Fire)
2: Elliot ALBERTO (Fire), Keiren ALLEN (Power), Cale BROWN (Stars), Andrew FOX (Power), Sherab GUO-YUTHOK (Apex), Maxx GREEN (Fire), Zac IGLESIAS (Stars), Alan KAPCHANGA (Power), Nathen MEGIC (Lightning), Bruno MELO (Apex), Pedro PEREIRA (Power), Ryan STRAUB (Swift), Samuel THOMSON (Fire)
1: Ashley BLOUNT (Lightning), Jonathan CIMINELLI (Fire), Damian COLORADO (Power), Callum COOK (Power), Marcus CRISPE (Swift), Connor FALUSI (Apex), Luca FLOREZ (Fire), Brett FORWARD (Lightning), Daniel FULTON (Lightning), Brandon HAWKER (Fire), Ezequiel INOCHEA (Power), 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)
