A second half hat-trick from striker Kieren Duggan helped Corrimal Rangers to a 5-2 victory over Wests Illawarra in the WGC Cranes District League Youth Grade Grand Final, reversing the scoreline of their defeat in the 2014 Grand Final.

Wests put up a good fight, going in at half-time 2-1 up, but once Christian Saffioti had equalised just after the break, there was only one team in it and the second half belonged to Duggan whose three goals brought his tally for the season to 53 and earned him Man of the Match today.

Goals were always likely in this match as the two teams had managed more than 200 goals between them in the 2015 season.

And supporters who had turned out in force to follow this midday kick-off didn’t have long to wait.

In the sixth minute, Kon Kandilas won a free-kick on the edge of the area. Alex Riddle stepped up and whipped the ball straight in at the far corner, beyond the reach of Matthew Payne in the Corrimal goal.

The League title winners were quick to respond, though, with Luke Blatch’s in-swinging corner being helped into the net by an unlucky Daniel Jorge.

The Wests midfielder didn’t take long to make amends, whipping in a corner himself that curled straight into the net to regain the lead in the 24^th minute.

Both keepers were kept busy, with Jordan Timpano in the Wests goal pulling off a fine save to deny Duggan, and Payne at the other end making a point-blank save of his own.

Two minutes after the restart, Saffioti received the ball just inside the area. He turned inside, took one touch and fired a right foot shot beyond the reach of Timpano.

Ten minutes later, the Duggan goal feast began: his first came from an individual effort, lobbing Timpano from the edge of the area to give Corrimal the lead.

His second came in the 85^th minute. Timpano had just made a spectacular save to deny Kalen Pupovac, but he flailed at the resulting corner, leaving Duggan space for a free header, and he doesn’t miss a chance like that.

With three minutes left, as Wests still pressed for a reply, a long ball out of defence found Duggan on the edge of the area. Again he beat Timpano to the ball and just had to tap in for his hat-trick and Corrimal’s fifth

For Kevin Chilby, in his fourth year in charge of Corrimal’s Youth squad, the victory was sweet after defeat at this stage last season. “The difference this season was the strikers, obviously, with Cody Jones as well as Kieren and Pupovac and (James) Uzunovski, who were already playing last season. There was also a belief in our ability and a determination to reverse what happened last time”.

On today’s game, he said: “At 2-1 down at half-time, we had a lot to do, but they should have been 4-1 up so we saw it as a positive and turned it round in the second half. We may lose some of our talented players on the back of this, but I hope we’ll be back again next year.”

Story by Simon Duffin and Photo courtesy of Fotosportz