Green Gully SC (6) vs Moreland City FC (2):
Round 8 started off with a Good Friday matchup where Green Gully beat Moreland by a whopping four goals at Green Gully Reserve.
It started off as a back and forth affair between these two clubs as both of them scored two each in the first half. Gianluca Iannuci scored the first goal of the game for Green Gully in the 12th minute where Pierce Waring unlocked the counter attack for Gully and was able to find Iannuci alone in the box to go one up.
Moreland levelled the scores after Flecther Fulton’s cross in the box was deflected into Gully’s goal by Jordon Lampard in the 29th minute.
However, inform forward Pierce Waring got himself on the scoresheet once again after Leighton Lauton stripped the ball off the Moreland defender and found Waring in the box to regain the lead for Green Gully.
Towards the end off the first half, Moreland won a peanlty and it was Jamie Latham who stepped up to take the spot kick where he scored to level the scores once again.
The last 30 minutes of this game saw Green Gully score four goals starting with Alan Gerez who was surrounded by four Moreland players but was able to get his long distance effort to hit the back of the net in the 61st minute of the game.
Two minutes later, Josh Hope increased the lead to two after he bursted past the Moreland defence and found himself one-on-one with Alex Kondoleon where he slotted it past him.
Tyler Vecchio who only came on late in the first half scored in the 70th minute after dribblng past multiple Moreland players and his effort outside the box struck the roof of the net to increase Gully’s lead to three.
To finish off the game, Hope scored his second after Gerez found him and similar to his first he dribbled past the Moreland defence and around Kondoleon where he passed into an empty net to score Gully’s sixth of the night.
Port Melbourne Sharks SC (2) vs St Albans Saints SC (1):
The first of three games on Saturday saw Port Melbourne defeat St Albans at JL Murphy Reserve.
The first goal of the game was scored by Chris Duggan late in the first half after Valli Cesnik’s initial shot found its way to the feet of Duggan who poked it past Jasmin Keranovic to give the Sharks the lead.
Port Melbourne were able to increase their to two in the 53rd minute through Luca Tevere who received the ball from Duggan who had space and time to place it past Keranovic.
St Albans did close the lead back to one where captain Michael Grgic scored from a free kick just outside the box in the 63rd minute.
Hume City FC (0) vs South Melbourne FC (0):
Both Hume City and South Melbourne shared the points at the end of the game after a goaless draw between the two sides.
South Melbourne can see themselves as lucky to not to concede as Hume shot 19 times where 11 of them were on target. In comparison to South Melbourne, they shot six times throughout the match with only one of them being on target.
Hume City will play Green Gully next away from home and South Melbourne will play Bentleigh back at Lakeside Stadium.
Dandenong Thunder FC (1) vs Avondale FC (3):
The last game on Saturday saw the league leaders Avondale continue their winning ways against a struggling Dandenong Thunder at George Andrew’s Reserve.
Stefan Zinni gave Avondale the lead after 23 minutes receiving the ball from Kristian Trajceski and striking the ball into the back of the net.
It only took substitute Many Aguek 23 seconds into the second half to score his first and Avondale’s second of the game after Thunder’s Majak Mawith came running outside of his box to stop Aguek, but he was able to react and go around Mawith to slot it into an empty net.
Aguek scored once again four minutes after his first, where Zander Guy found him at the back post and Aguek was able to header it past Mawith to score Avondale’s third of the game.
Five minutes later, Dandenong did reduce the lead back to two through Mamadi Kamara who intercepted Blake Carpenter’s back pass and slotted it past Thomas Manos.
Heidelberg United FC (1) vs Altona Magic SC (2):
The only match to be played on Easter Sunday was between Heidelberg United and the Altona Magic at Olympic Village.
Heidelberg were first to get on the scoresheet in the 15th minute through Bilal Habib who was one-on-one against Altona’s Matias Gonzalez and Habib was able to score from a tight angle on the left-hand size.
Altona did get the leveller in the 51st minute after Tommy Semmy’s header was directed into the path of Alex Castiello who striked it through a wall of Heidelberg players into the back of the net.
Tommy Semmy did also get himself a goal in this matchup in the 74th minute after some nice interplay with Josh Markovski, he found himself some space to take a shot from distance where he hit the bottom right corner of the goal helping give Altona the win.
Melbourne Knights FC (3) vs North Geelong Warriors FC (2):
Two games were played on Easter Monday, with one them featuring the Melbourne Knights and the North Geelong Warriors at Knights Stadium.
The Knights got off to a quick start with Corey Sewell the goal scorer for Melbourne in the third minute where he recevied the ball from Luka Kolic and striked it past Hamish Flavell to get the early lead.
Heading towards the end of the first half, Ciaran Bramwell scored for the Knights to increase their lead to two after some nice link-up play between Sewell and Kolic, where Kolic once again was able to cut it back to Bramwell who slotted it in past Flavell.
In the 54th minute, Melbourne were able to secure a third goal through Gevaro Nepomuceno after Anthony Duzel found him in the box and he was able to curl the ball into the top right corner of the goal.
North Geelong slowly came back into game with an own goal in the 67th minute by Joseph Franjic and unfortunately Chris Oldfield wasn’t able to keep it out. The Warriors scored a second goal within the last few minutes of added time through Luke Zivcic, but the Knights held on to secure the win.
Oakleigh Cannons FC (3) vs Bentleigh Greens SC (0):
The final match of the round and the second match on Easter Monday saw the Oakleigh Cannons beat Bentleigh by three goals at Jack Edwards Reserve.
It only took 22 minutes for the host to score the first of the match with Joe Guest being the goal scorer after a mistake from Greens’ keeper Bon Scott.
In the 41st minute, Oakleigh scored their second through Connor Hampson where Joe Guest whipped one from the corner and he was able to head it past Scott.
Daniel Clark scored Oakleigh’s third in the 83rd minute to seal the win for the Cannons.
Image Credit: Mark Avellino
