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Words and images By Craig Stockdale
With a brisk southerly wind that harboured a chill factor in the single figures, the NTC Girls were confronted by the Northcote U15A boys team in what was a solid display of technical and tactical skills all over the pitch.
Edmondson opted for Beth Mason-Jones in goal with Bella Scott, Marianna Anthony, Melbourne Victory Women’s guest Jessica Humble and Guilia Sepe as the defensive line. In the middle of the pitch we saw Cindy Lay, Kate Fotopoulos and Zoe Stamatopoulos distributing up forward to the potent trio of Beattie Goad, Box Hill guest Elly Curo and Eleni Fakos.
The game kicked off with several nervous passes and an intrepid boy’s outfit but soon both teams settled down to concentrate on creating positive and creative passages of play.
NTC Girls forged forward quickly with some sharp passing by Cindy Lay and Kate Fotopoulos which found the feet of Beattie Goad and Guilia Sepe resulting in the first corner of the night inside the initial two minutes of play.
It took Northcote six minutes to advance the ball into their forward half of the pitch facing relentless on the ball pressure from the NTC girls midfield and forwards that saw numerous mistakes and turnovers to the NTC Girls.
Northcote Boys started to find their targets and quickly advanced the ball through the NTC defensive line with one of the forwards taking a crisp strike on goal only to be safely thwarted by Mason-Jones. It was now the boys turn in advancing forward but good defensive work by Marianna Anthony and Jess Humble playing high saw many offside decisions in their favour.
The Northcote coach was fervently using his substitutes and moving the team around trying to find the best matchups that would deliver a result for his team.
With the boys gradually gaining the ascendancy with possession, several long balls found their way to the feet of the wingers who took shots that sailed well over the top of the cross bar or were saved by the fearless diving of keeper Beth Mason-Jones. She consistently put her body on the line not wavering at any of the Northcote challenges on goal.
With only minutes in the half remaining the Northcote Boys found a running forward who managed to evade the defensive line and score from a rebound off the NTC keeper’s outstretched arms. Nothing anyone could do with that one: 1-0 to Northcote.
The second half saw some wholesale changes by Edmondson bringing his entire bench on board. Coming into the defensive line was replacement goal keeper Tori Snelleksz along with Maddie Stockdale and Lucy Kennedy while Phoebe Parker was added to the wing.
Again the NTC Girls began strongly with Cindy Lay putting on a clinic in the midfield showing her raw talent in possession of the ball. Several plays up and down the pitch from end to end resulted in very little for both teams until a defensive mishap saw a ball ricochet from a pass by the keeper off the feet of Jessica Humble and into the path of a waiting Northcote forward who slotted the boys second major of the evening: Northcote 2-0 NTC Girls.
Minutes later, after winning a challenge, a misplaced pass under pressure from Bella Scott was intercepted by a Northcote forward who took a crack shot from way outside the box which sailed over the head of the NTC keeper and into the top left hand corner of the net for Northcote’s third goal of the evening. A very opportunistic shot but a score on the board to the boys: 3-0 now.
The NTC Girls continued to press and put pressure on the ball handlers but to no avail in the remainder of the second half. As the game petered out to full time an unfortunate rolled ankle to Cindy Lay saw the whistle sound to end the game.
This was a solid display of talent on both sides of the pitch and a match in which both genders could hold their heads high. Each team equally controlled possession during the game and there were some nice passages of play in both cases.
A job well done by all.