UC Stars claimed the Capital Futsal League Men’s League Championship with a convincing performance in defeating North Canberra Fire 12-0 in their Round 7 catch-up match in midweek at Daramalan College.
As well as claiming top spot, and the title of League Champions, the Stars also recorded the CFL Men’s very first clean-sheet as Jamie-Lee Guo took his place in the record books.
The Stars dominated the opening half putting the Fire on the back foot but were frustrated by some resolute defending from North Canberra who threw bodies at everything that came their way to keep the opposition at bay.
James-Ward hit the base of a post with a snapshot close to goal before the Stars eventually made the breakthrough as James-Ward saw his effort deflected into his own goal by Elliot Alberto.
It wasn’t until the second goal however that the floodgates suddenly opened. After Michael Rinaudo arrowed a thumping drive into the bottom corner of the net from range, the goals began to flow.
James-Ward bagged a brace within a minute of each other to increase the lead to 4-0 and Nick Pratezina carried on where he had left off on the weekend having grabbed seven against ANU Apex to have the Stars 5-0 ahead at the break.
Rinaudo added a sixth early in the second-half, on the end of another superbly crafted move, and Nic Dahl was the beneficiary of a similar build-up five minutes after the resumption of play.
Dahl smashed in his second to increase the scoreline, James-Ward completed his treble, Rinaudo moved his tally to four, and Pratezina netted a fourteenth of the season to move atop the Golden Boot rankings as the Stars turned on the style.
RESULTS
Wed: North Canberra Fire 0 UC Stars 12 (Alberto 12’ (og), Rinaudo 16’, 23’, 34’, 35’, James-Ward 17’, 18’, 31’, Pratezina 18’, 33’, Dahl 25’, 30’)
TABLE
| P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS | ||
| 1 | UC Stars | 9 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 70 | 27 | +43 | 25 |
| 2 | South Canberra Swift | 9 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 48 | 35 | +13 | 21 |
| 3 | West Canberra Lightning | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 48 | 44 | +4 | 11 |
| 4 | QP Power | 9 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 47 | 46 | +1 | 10 |
| 5 | North Canberra Fire | 8 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 19 | 50 | -31 | 4 |
| 6 | ANU Apex | 9 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 38 | 68 | -30 | 4 |
TOP SCORERS
14 Nick PRATEZINA (Stars)
13 Johnny HAJDU (Apex), Jayde JAMES-WARD (Stars)
12 Luca MACOR (Stars), Nicholas SUBASIC (Lightning)
11 Marco GAYER (Power)
10 Michael RINAUDO (Stars)
9 Alessandro PENA (Swift)
8 Nic DAHL (Stars), FERNANDO Jorquera (Swift), Ed MCCARTHY (Power), Doug WOODIWISS (Power)
7 Stephen DOMENICI (Lightning), Daniel FULTON (Lightning), Own GOALS
6 Elie DARWICH (Fire), Bailey SORENSON (Fire)
5 Lucas ALCAZAR-STEVENS (Swift), Aisosa IHEGIE (Swift), Nathen MEGIC (Lightning), Nick RATHJEN (Stars), Atiya WARAGA (Swift)
4 Hassan ALNUWAYSIR (Swift), Ben BASSER-SILK (Lightning), Ashley BLOUNT (Lightning), Jake FITZGERALD (Apex), Marley JACKSON (Power), Braulio MELO (Apex), Bruno MELO (Apex), Adam NEOU (Power), Tony SPASESKI (Power), Robert TKATCHENKO (Stars)
3 Bailey DICKINSON (Apex), Connor FALUSI (Apex), Jake WILSENER (Stars)
2 Caleb CULLEN-RUA (Power), Adrian DAWSON (Power), Dylan DEEP-JONES (Power), Daniel GIOVINAZZO (Lightning), Bradley MALONE (Fire), Angus PITKIN (Swift), Nik POPOVICH (Lightning), Callum SMITH (Lightning), Kai THORNTON (Apex)
1 Micheal ADAMS (Swift), Elliot ALBERTO (Fire), Jenno CERUTI (Apex), Arnold CHOI (Power), Jason FARRELL (Lightning), Sherab GUO (Apex), Brandon HAWKER (Fire), Chris LEE (Lightning), William MANOLO (Stars), Toby MCPHERSON (Fire), Van NGUYEN (Swift), Johnny PHAM (Swift), Jeremy SALEH (Power), David SESELJA (Swift), Michael SOUTHAM (Lightning), Max TRUSHELL (Apex)
