History was made in the Capital Futsal League as South Canberra Swift captain Samantha Price kick-started a brand new era of Futsal in the National Capital by scoring the very first goal of the new elite senior competition at Daramalan College.
Price netted after two minutes of the inaugural match against the West Canberra Lightning and, although the Lightning went on to recover and claim the points in a 6-1 success, Price will forever have her name etched in Canberra Futsal folklore for her moment in front of goal.
Lightning forward Brittany Palombi had the honour of registering the first hat-trick of the new competition, her lethal left-foot coming up with a treble, adding a brace to her first-half strike as the Lightning took control of the match. Krista Hagen and Dianne Wilson also netted whilst Kaitlyn Colwill put through her own goal.
The North Canberra Fire set out a statement of intent with their opening round win, a huge 19-1 defeat of a Queanbeyan-Palerang Power side who had only just met in the changing room prior to the match and had a brace of goalkeepers, Renee Kite, and Tanya Joveski, who had never played in goal before.
The duo between the posts were superb however, and denied the more experienced Fire on numerous occasions, making a raft of wonderful saves. The Power defended resolutely with Joanne Carrington immense and got their reward with an excellently taken goal by Justine Armstrong in the second stanza.
The Fire played some brilliant Futsal and scored some magnificently executed goals with Stella De Marco leading the way with a double hat-trick, sister Natalia De Marco adding a treble of her own to the goal tally.
Nicole Jalocha managed four goals, a first-half treble to her name, whilst the impressive Bessie Reithmuller also managed three goals and went close with several other efforts that were repelled by the Power goalkeeping pair. Nikita Perry slipped in a brace of goals, and the last of the evening came from Stefi Lejins as the Fire started brightly.
The fastest goal of the weekend came in the University derby as UC Stars Becky Rizzo found the target after only fifteen seconds against ANU Apex, the first of her opening round hat-trick leading the Stars to a 6-2 win.
Rizzo bagged the opening two goals of the match in what was an end-to-end encounter that captured the imagination of the spectators. Apex twice equalised early on as Shayma Taweel and Roxie Swart levelled Rizzo’s quick-fire double and there was some stunning goalkeeping by both Stars’ Vanessa Burdett and Apex number one Maja Dodt.
Eventually, the Stars managed to ease away, an own goal from Georgia Busuttil and a fourth Stars goal from Reilly Yuen on the cusp of half-time, easing them into a two-goal cushion. Second half strikes from Rizzo, completing the treble, and Tayla Hampson, a vicious strike into the top corner, completed a memorable maiden victory.
WOMEN
Friday 28 October
South Canberra Swift 1 (Price 2’) West Canberra Lightning 6 (Palombi 6’, 28’, 37, Hagen 6’, Colwill 9’ (og), Wilson 17’)
Saturday 29 October
North Canberra Fire 19 (Jalocha 2’, 8’, 18’, 31’, S. De Marco 4’, 7’, 20’, 22’, 24’, 38’, Reithmuller 11’, 12’, 27’, N. De Marco 18’, 19’, 30’, Perry 28’, 34’, Lejins 40’) Queanbeyan-Palerang Power 1 (Armstrong 30’)
Sunday 30 October
UC Stars 6 (Rizzo 1’, 7’, 27’, Busuttil 15’ (og), Yuen 20’, Hampson 21’) ANU Apex 2 (Taweel 5’, Swart 8’)
TABLE
| TEAM | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | PTS | |
| 1 | Fire | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 1 | +18 | 3 |
| 2 | Lightning | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | +5 | 3 |
| 3 | Stars | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 | +4 | 3 |
| 4 | Apex | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 6 | -4 | 0 |
| 5 | Swift | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 | -5 | 0 |
| 6 | Power | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 19 | -18 | 0 |
LEADING SCORERS
6 Stella DE MARCO (Fire)
4 Nicole JALOCHA (Fire)
3 Natalie DE MARCO (Fire), Brittany PALOMBI (Lightning), Bessie REITHMULLER (Fire), Becky RIZZO (Stars)
2 Nikita PERRY (Fire), Own GOALS
1 Krista HAGEN (Lightning), Tayla HAMPSON (Stars), Stefi LEJINS (Fire), Samantha PRICE (Swift), Roxie SWART (Apex), Shayma TAWEEL (Apex), Dianne WILSON (Lightning), Reilly YUEN (Stars)
