ANU Apex claimed their first-ever point from the North Canberra Fire as the University team earned a 4-4 draw with nearly the final kick of an absorbing fixture in Capital Futsal League Round 8.
A fierce hit from an acute angle by Lucy D’Arcy, her second goal of the contest, made sure that the Apex had a positive return at the fifth time of asking against a Fire side shorn of their leading scorer Reilly Yuen, and a trio of players away on duty with the Boomerangs.
That shouldn’t take away from a magnificent Apex showing however as the came from behind twice to take a point, responding after Bronte Pyke and Sharon Chao, who would grab a hat-trick, had given the Fire the ascendency. Alex Nealand and D’Arcy brought the score back to 2-2.
It may have been even better after Chloe Barker scored her first ever senior CFL goal to edge them ahead, only for Chao to strike twice, the latter with a minute remaining, to seemingly squeeze Fire home. But D’Arcy and her teammates had other ideas and leveled the match late-on.
South Canberra Swift kept up their fight for top spot as they claimed their sixth win in eight matches with a 6-2 win over UC Stars in an entertaining match at Daramalan College.
The Swift, who handed CFL First-Grade debuts to Layla Barbour and Alyssa Di-Campli, held the Stars at arm’s length in the opening half, taking a three-goal lead into the interval after striking through Isabella Hindmarsh to open the scoring in the seventh minute of the contest.
Further goals from Maddie Steinacker and a Kayla Wright own goal had Swift firmly in control, a feeling that was intensified as Hindmarsh drilled home the fourth early in the second-half. Amy Bongiorno pulled one back for the Stars with a tidy finish, but Swift’s response was two more.
Zoe Halpin, and Steinacker again, made sure that the three points would be theirs, with a late own goal from Sienna Birnie nothing more than a footnote at the conclusion of the encounter.
Brittany Palombi equaled her individual record for most goals in a game as, for the second time in the three-year history of the CFL, the hot-shot attacker racked up thirteen goals against Queanbeyan-Palerang Power as West Canberra Lightning recorded a thumping 31-1 win At Queanbeyan Indoor Sports Centre.
The Lightning had a twelve-goal lead by the interval as they scored at regular intervals against a severely outgunned Power, moving their goal difference to the best in the division by the end of their match and before the rest of the games had been played in Round 8.
Jamie Berkeley also hit double figures, grabbing ten goals as she moved on to fifteen for the season, whilst there was also a hat-trick for Dianne Wilson, who ended with five to her name. Krista Hagen struck the other two with Ella Smith putting through her own net.
Casey Smith’s third goal of the season for the Power at least meant they avoided going goalless, as the Lightning fell just short of all-time record score territory in a one-sided rout.
RESULTS
QP Power 1 (C. Smith 33’) West Canberra Lightning 31 (Wilson 3’, 17’, 23’, 31’, 37’, Palombi 7’, 11’, 12’, 14’, 15’, 22’, 25’, 26’, 28’, 31’, 32’, 34’, 36’, Berkeley 7’, 8’, 10’, 14’, 29’, 29’, 32’, 34’, 36’, 39’, Hagen 19’, 29’, E. Smith 34’ (og))
UC Stars 2 (Bongiorno 24’, Birnie 38’ (og)) South Canberra Swift 6 (Hindmarsh 7’, 21’, Wright 15’ (og), Halpin 31’, Steinacker 13’, 31’)
North Canberra Fire 4 (Pyke 16’, Chao 17’, 32’, 39’) ANU Apex 4 (Nealand 18’, D’Arcy 25’, 40’, Barker 28’)
TABLE
| P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS | ||
| 1 | South Canberra Swift | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 59 | 25 | +34 | 18 |
| 2 | North Canberra Fire | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 64 | 24 | +40 | 16 |
| 3 | West Canberra Lightning | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 70 | 25 | +45 | 13 |
| 4 | UC Stars | 7 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 27 | 39 | -12 | 9 |
| 5 | ANU Apex | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 20 | 28 | -8 | 4 |
| 6 | QP Power | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 10 | 109 | -99 | 0 |
TOP SCORERS
25: Brittany PALOMBI (Lightning)
19: Reilly YUEN (Fire)
15: Jamie BERKELEY (Lightning), Sienna BIRNIE (Swift)
11: Sharon CHAO (Fire)
9: Tatum MAZIS (Fire), Own GOALS
8: Isabella HINDMARSH (Swift), Dianne WILSON (Lightning)
7: Natalie DE MARCO (Fire)
6: Isabella BARAC (Lightning), Anneke CORRY (Swift), Zoe HALPIN (Swift), Maddie STEINACKER (Swift)
5: Krista HAGEN (Lightning), Ayla ROBERTSON (Fire), Emily ROBERTSON (Stars), Nadia ZAKMAN (Lightning)
4: Megan CASTLE (Stars), Stella DE MARCO (Fire), Samantha PRICE (Swift)
3: Eliza BAKER (Apex), Cara CERUTI (Swift), Kaitlyn COLWILL (Swift), Lucy D’ARCY (Apex), Rhianna GOLDSTEIN (Stars), Alyse JENSEN (Swift), Alexandra NEALAND (Apex), Bronte PYKE (Fire), Jasmine RICHARDS (Fire), Becky RIZZO (Stars), Casey SMITH (Power), Michaela THORNTON (Lightning)
2: Chloe DE MEYER (Power), Edith FORDYCE-CROKER (Apex), Tayla HAMPSON (Stars), Amy BONGIORNO (Stars), Isabella HOPKINS (Apex), Sheridan MCELLIGOTT (Apex), Holly MCPHERSON (Stars), Dannielle WALTMAN (Power), Kayla WRIGHT (Stars)
1: Chloe BARKER (Apex), Sophia BISSELL (Apex), Grace DAVEY (Apex), Tina GOPALAN (Apex), Lauren HALL (Swift), Emmalea KALENJUK (Power), Briana MAGUIRE (Apex), Tarah MANTHONGSY (Stars), Jessica MITCHELL (Stars), Eliza-Jane NORRIS (Stars), Ginger OLIVER (Fire), Sofia PALYWODA (Swift), Megan SNELL (Swift), Zoe WILSON (Power)
