North Canberra Fire moved to within a point of claiming top spot in the Women’s Capital Futsal League with a convincing 5-0 win over South Canberra Swift at Canberra Futsal Centre on Monday evening.
The Fire dominated the early exchanges and deservedly went in front in the fourth minute as they created the space for Bronte Pyke to take a touch and ram a thumping finish past Megan Snell and high into the roof of the net.
Swift responded, settling into the contest and going close as Isabella Hindmarsh stabbed wide from close range, however it was the Fire who went further ahead as they struck again in the eleventh minute.
The work was all done by Natalia De Marco, winning the ball high up the court, dancing past a challenge, and finishing with a low, accurate, drive that blistered past Snell and into the bottom corner. That gave Fire a two-goal cushion to take into the half-time interval.
Swift certainly tested Jessica Giovinazzo after the break, Kaitlyn Colwill sending in an angled shot that was magnificently turned aside by the Fire custodian. And it was Fire who were to secure the points with the vital third, Pyke taking advantage of a Swift mistake when playing fifth player to roll the ball home.
There was icing on the cake a short time later as Ayla Robetson grabbed a quickfire brace to blow out the scoreboard, which was harsh on Swift, but the Fire claimed a potential league championship defining win.
History was made at the Australian Institute of Sport on Friday evening as West Canberra Lightning defeated UC Stars 9-0 with Jamie Berkeley’s first-half treble being the 100th scored in the Capital Futsal League Women’s competition.
Berkley wasn’t the first in the game to bag a hat-trick, the lethal Brittany Palombi having beaten her to the feat only moments before, on her way to ending the encounter four goals to her name, increasing her lead in the Golden Boot race.
An unfortunate own goal from Eliza-Jane Norris, and a fine strike from Dianne Wilson, had the Lightning eight to the good by the interval. The second-half saw the Stars much improved defensively, the players heeding the call of their coach to tighten up and move the ball faster.
There was only one more goal in the second-half, Palombi adding to her tally, but the damage had already been done before the break as Lightning continued their resurgence with another three points.
In the first of two matches that they would play over the weekend of Round 9, the North Canberra Fire did what they needed to do in their catch-up match with ANU Apex, convincingly running out winners by 9-1 at Queanbeyan Indoor Sports Centre.
Going in front via an own goal from Grace Davey in only the third minute, there was little chance of the Apex repeating their creditable draw of a week earlier, especially not after goals from Tatum Mazis and Alex Martens had the Fire three to the good by the time of the half-time break.
Mazis was in good form and bagged an early second-half brace to complete her hat-trick, and make sure that any hope of an Apex comeback was highly unlikely, a thought that evaporated entirely by the time Jasmine Richards struck the first two of her own matchday treble.
Alex Nealand’s fourth CFL goal gave the Apex some tangible reward for their efforts, but there was more to come from the Fire, who boosted their goal difference by scoring twice more in the final minute as Richards got her third, and Martens her second, to complete a satisfactory evening.
RESULTS
ROUND 1
Friday 29 November
West Canberra Lightning 9 (Berkeley 4’, 9’, 19’, Palombi 6’, 10’, 16’, 40’, Norris 7’ (og), Wilson 7’) UC Stars 0
ANU Apex 1 (Nealand 36’) North Canberra Fire 9 (Davey 3’ (og), Mazis 8’, 22’, 23’, Martens 17’, 40’, Richards 29’, 32’, 40’)
ROUND 9
Monday 2 December
South Canberra Swift 0 North Canberra Fire 5 (Pyke 4’, 36’, N. De Marco 11’, Robertson 38’, 39’)
TABLE
| P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS | ||
| 1 | North Canberra Fire | 9 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 78 | 25 | +53 | 22 |
| 2 | South Canberra Swift | 9 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 59 | 30 | +29 | 18 |
| 3 | West Canberra Lightning | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 79 | 25 | +54 | 16 |
| 4 | UC Stars | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 27 | 48 | -21 | 9 |
| 5 | ANU Apex | 7 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 21 | 37 | -16 | 4 |
| 6 | QP Power | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 10 | 109 | -99 | 0 |
TOP SCORERS
29: Brittany PALOMBI (Lightning)
19: Reilly YUEN (Fire)
18: Jamie BERKELEY (Lightning)
15: Sienna BIRNIE (Swift)
12: Tatum MAZIS (Fire)
11: Sharon CHAO (Fire), Own GOALS
9: Dianne WILSON (Lightning)
8: Natalie DE MARCO (Fire), Isabella HINDMARSH (Swift)
7: Ayla ROBERTSON (Fire)
6: Isabella BARAC (Lightning), Anneke CORRY (Swift), Zoe HALPIN (Swift), Jasmine RICHARDS (Fire), Maddie STEINACKER (Swift)
5: Krista HAGEN (Lightning), Bronte PYKE (Fire), Emily ROBERTSON (Stars), Nadia ZAKMAN (Lightning)
4: Megan CASTLE (Stars), Stella DE MARCO (Fire), Alexandra NEALAND (Apex), Samantha PRICE (Swift)
3: Eliza BAKER (Apex), Cara CERUTI (Swift), Kaitlyn COLWILL (Swift), Lucy D’ARCY (Apex), Rhianna GOLDSTEIN (Stars), Alyse JENSEN (Swift), 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), Alex MARTENS (Fire), 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)
