O’Connor Knights reclaimed the summit of the NPL23 competition by gaining the victory they needed to jump over Tigers FC at the top of the table with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Tuggeranong United at Kambah 2.
The Knights did the damage in the first-half, taking the game out of the reach of their opponents with three well-taken goals. After Ethan Saunders had put them ahead on 14 minutes, a wonderfully placed free-kick from Marko Rathouski doubled the lead. Kyah Milin made it three at the break.
There were no further goals in the second-half, but the Knights had done enough to put themselves into pole position heading into the final match of the season.
Gungahlin United kept their hopes of the top four alive in their midweek catch-up match with O’Connor Knights at Hawker Football Centre, inflicting a blow on the Knights title aspirations in the process with a convincing 4-1 victory.
An early penalty from Fabian Olivares sent the Gunners on their way, before goals from Marcus Lau and Stephen Cerni either side of the half-time break had the home side in control of proceedings.
Lau netted his second, and his team’s fourth, with fourteen minutes remaining meaning that Marko Rathouski’s fifth of the campaign for the Knights was to prove to be a mere consolation.
A strong Tigers FC, featuring four first-team regulars, with one more on the bench, predictably proved far too strong for Monaro Panthers, recoding a 4-0 victory at Stryda Park to move top of the NPL23 competition with a brace of matches remaining.
Tigers’ striker Lukman Ahmed-Shaibu opened the scoring from the penalty spot twenty minutes in and was followed onto the scoresheet by Shandon Whitehead five minutes before the half-time break.
Ahmed-Shaibu added a second just before the hour mark with Kye Cossetini rounding off the victory in the final minute as Tigers moved two points clear of the chasing pack with matches running out.
Tigers FC hold on top spot returned to precarious after their Saturday afternoon meeting with Canberra Croatia at the AIS as the visitors recorded a stunning 7-0 victory against a Tigers team reduced to ten men following the dismissal of Angus Wales just before the half-time break.
By then, Croatia led by 2-0 as Andrija Rakic struck twice in quick succession early on and, when Oliver Hawkins added the third early in the second stanza, the writing was on the wall for the hosts.
Owen Learmonth added a brace to the tally, before Aston Goodwin made it six with a well-taken goal as Croatia ripped through the Tigers defence. Learmonth was to complete his hat-trick in the last minute as the visitors kept in touch with the top spot.
Bottom of the table Queanbeyan City roared to a mini Clearwaters Derby victory as they thrashed visiting Monaro Panthers 5-0 in their meeting at High Street.
The home side had two before the half-time break as goals from Xavier Bonnett and Samuel Palic eased City into a 2-0 advantage, a lead that they were to increase moments after the restart as Palic added his second to effectively kill off the Panthers hopes.
Palic was later to complete his treble, his first for his new club, and the perfect day for Queanbeyan was rounded off late on as Alexander Davids scored his first-ever goal in the OPC NPL U23 competition.
Yoogali SC struck a blow to Gungahlin United hopes of getting into the top four as the visitors came from 0-2 down to earn a 2-2 draw at the Australian Institute of Sport
The Gunners struck the only goal of the opening half eleven minutes into the contest when a well-worked moved culminated in a low cross into the penalty area that was steered home first time by the onrushing Thomas Barbatano.
Barbatano added a second eight minutes into the second stanza, but Yoogali would not lie down and a brace of goals from Fabian Cacopardo, the second six minutes from full-time earned the Riverina men a point.
RESULTS
ROUND 9
Wednesday 20 August
Gungahlin United 4 (Olivares 16’ (p), Lau 32’, 76’, Cerni 57’) O’Connor Knights 1 (Rathouski 86’)
ROUND 16
Wednesday 20 August
Monaro Panthers 0 Tigers FC 4 (Ahmed-Shaibu 20’ (p), 58’, Whitehead 40’, Cossettini 90’)
ROUND 20
Saturday 23 August
Tigers FC 0 Canberra Croatia 7 (Andrija Rakic 13’, 15’, Hawkins 57’, Learmonth 62’, 74’, 90’, Goodwin 69’)
Queanbeyan City 5 (X. Bonnett 31’, S. Palic 45’, 46’, 67’, Davids 83’) Monaro Panthers 0
Sunday 24 August
Gungahlin United 2 (Barbatano 11’, 53’) Yoogali SC 2 (Cacopardo 60’, 84’)
Tuggeranong United 0 O’Connor Knights 3 (Saunders 14’, Rathouski 31’, Milin 37’)
TABLE
| P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS | ||
| 1 | O’Connor Knights | 20 | 13 | 3 | 5 | 51 | 30 | +21 | 42 |
| 2 | Tigers FC | 20 | 13 | 2 | 5 | 58 | 30 | +28 | 41 |
| 3 | Canberra Croatia | 20 | 12 | 2 | 6 | 56 | 35 | +21 | 38 |
| 4 | Tuggeranong United | 19 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 36 | 30 | +6 | 28 |
| 5 | Gungahlin United | 19 | 7 | 3 | 9 | 28 | 38 | -10 | 24 |
| 6 | Monaro Panthers | 20 | 5 | 4 | 11 | 26 | 48 | -22 | 19 |
| 7 | Yoogali SC | 19 | 5 | 4 | 11 | 21 | 46 | -25 | 19 |
| 8 | Queanbeyan City | 20 | 3 | 4 | 13 | 32 | 51 | -19 | 13 |
TOP SCORERS
16: Anthony ANTONIAK (Tuggeranong United)
13: Cooper HEAGNEY (Tigers FC), Zachary ILIJOSKI (Tigers FC)
8: Oliver HAWKINS (Canberra Croatia), Jebediah JEFFERY (Canberra Croatia), Owen LEARMONTH (Canberra Croatia), Fabian OLIVARES (Gungahlin United), Own GOALS
7: Alexander EVANS (Queanbeyan City), Ayham NASSER (Monaro Panthers)
6: Rocco DI PLACIDO (O’Connor Knights), Leo DONALD (Tuggeranong United), Thinley DORJI (Tigers FC), Marko RATHOUSKI (O’Connor Knights)
5: Elliot ALBERTO (Tigers FC), Ivan DZAJA (O’Connor Knights), Daniel GALIC (O’Connor Knights), James GODDING (Canberra Croatia), Jack JANKE (O’Connor Knights), Darcy MIDDLETON (Canberra Croatia), Andrija RAKIC (Canberra Croatia), Anthony RAKIC (Canberra Croatia), Luka USLJEBRKA (O’Connor Knights)
4: Daniel ANDERSON (O’Connor Knights), Zia BAIRD (Monaro Panthers), Thomas BARBATANO (Gungahlin United), Xavier BONNETT (Queanbeyan City), Kaide CASTLE (Yoogali SC), Sebastian MUNOZ (Gungahlin United), Samuel PALIC (Queanbeyan City), Leo VANDERPOL (Monaro Panthers)
3: Samuel ABA (Queanbeyan City), Jack BITANI (Queanbeyan City), Fabian CACOPARDO (Yoogali SC), Stephen CERNI (Gungahlin United), Kye COSSETTINI (Tigers FC), Stefan DONADEL (Yoogali SC), Jake FATTORE (Tigers FC), Luka JUKIC (Canberra Croatia), Jacob KITE (Gungahlin United), Marcus LAU (Gungahlin United), Daniel OBST (Queanbeyan City), Samuel RACITI (Yoogali SC), Timothy SANTOS (Tuggeranong United), Sam SHEEDY (Tuggeranong United)
2: Lukman AHMED-SHAIBU (Tigers FC), Joshua AMOAH (Tigers FC), Seth BONNETT (Queanbeyan City), Zachary COLSON (Tigers FC), Marcus CRISPE (Tigers FC), Sivamsh DEEVI (Gungahlin United), Ethan DONETTO (Yoogali SC), Jack ELLWOOD (Monaro Panthers), Aston GOODWIN (Canberra Croatia), Mitchell JERVIS-HAMILTON (Monaro Panthers), Lemar KATAWAZAI (Canberra Croatia), Alexander LULIC (Monaro Panthers), Ivica MAJETIC (Canberra Croatia), Kyah MILIN (O’Connor Knights), Hamish MOYLE (Gungahlin United), Ahmed MUBAIDEEN (Tigers FC), Nikola PERINOVIC (O’Connor Knights), Kris RAAD (Tuggeranong United), Ethan SAUNDERS (O’Connor Knights)
1: Marcus AGNELLO (O’Connor Knights), Joshua AMOAH (Tigers FC), Cos ARENA (O’Connor Knights), Luke ARMANINI (Yoogali SC), Daniel BARBATANO (Queanbeyan City), Nico BULJAN (Queanbeyan City), Tanatswa BVIRAKARE (Tigers FC), Samson CARR (Tigers FC), Marcos DA SILVA (Canberra Croatia), Alexander DAVIDS (Queanbeyan City), Aleksandar DORDEVIC (Queanbeyan City), Tomer DORON (O’Connor Knights), Jydon FIELD (Tuggeranong United), Michael GALIC (Queanbeyan City), Dominic GALLUZZO (Yoogali SC), Joshua HEDDITCH (Monaro Panthers), Joshua KEENAN (Yoogali SC), Jure LEMEZINA (Monaro Panthers), Alexei MARDIYANTS (Monaro Panthers), Mohammad MAZRAEH (Tuggeranong United), Leon MCLEAN (Canberra Croatia), Joseph MIKAHEL (Monaro Panthers), Ibrahim OBEID (O’Connor Knights), Nicholas PIVA (Yoogali SC), Nicolas PULCIANI (Tigers FC), Jayden RIPPON (Gungahlin United), Abdin SAID (Tuggeranong United), Ali SOHANI (Monaro Panthers), William TWEEDIE (O’Connor Knights), Josip UJDUR (O’Connor Knights), Archie VARNES (Tuggeranong United), Shandon WHITEHEAD (Tigers FC), Ryan ZANATTA (Yoogali SC)
