After a couple of weeks of shooting blanks in front of goals, Tarrawanna returned to the winner's list with a thoroughly deserved four goals to two victory over Woonona on Saturday.

The Blueys were on the scoreboard as early as the 5th minute after Darren Stone, who had been very lively in the opening exchanges motored down the left side and his cut back found midfielder, Sangyu Park lurking on the edge of the penalty area. Recently recruited from Sydney, Park's first time shot was well struck and the ball nestled into the back of the net with Keeper, Brad Jardine no chance of keeping it out.

All the action early on was at the Woonona end and moments after the first goal, Jardine was called into action as he punched clear in a goal mouth scramble to relieve the pressure.

On 13 minutes, Stone who was proving a real handful, cut in from his position wide on the left but his angled shot fizzed just wide of the goal.
Shortly after, Matthew Mazevski tried his luck on the Woonona goal but his long range effort sailed over the bar.

With quarter of an hour gone in the game, the Sharkies were back on level terms with a goal from veteran Cameron Banks. Banks who was playing in his 300th senior game for Woonona (a magnificent achievement) in this game was bundled over by Mazevski just outside the penalty area in centre field. This is Banks' territory and has he has done over the years, the Striker duly despatched the direct free kick into the corner of the goal with aplomb. Great way to mark the occasion Cameron!

Parity on the scorline didn't last long (four minutes) as Tarrawanna continued to surge forward. Jake Morlando overlapped down the left side and whipped in a low cross from the side of the penalty area which struck the leg of a Sharkie's defender. As luck would have it, the ball looped in the air and found it's way to the back post area where Sam Onana Awano was lurking. Onan Awano directed the ball with his head back across goal with the header finding the far corner of the net.

The match was developing into a very open game with the play now switching from end to end. Valentino Merxhushi who had been Woonona's best player with a number of mazy attacking runs down the left hand side of the field drove at the Bluey's defence and in one foray forward on 30 minutes he exchanged passes with Hayden Nicol but when the opening appeared Merxhushi blazed his shot over the bar.

Meanwhile, Sangyu Park who was marauding all over the mid-field was having a dominating part in the game. Ten minutes before the interval, he capped off a superb first half performance with probably the goal of the game. The Korean had shown a lot of determination to win the ball back in a one on one challenge ten metres inside the Woonona half.

On winning the ball cleanly, he set off to the Sharkies on a unchallenged 25 metre run towards the Home Side goal where upon reaching the arc on the edge of the penalty area he let fly with a left foot strike which found the back of the Woonona goal before Jardine had time to move. Great goal indeed!

Four minutes later, it could have been four when Onana Awano played a one-two with Park deep inside Woonona territory. The return pass was met with some force and Onana Awano would have had his second for the game if not for a superb flying save from Jardine.

Just before the break, Woonona produced a late flurry with Merxhushi saw a longe range effort sail over the bar and then Caleb Russell headed over a Lachlan Fetterplace cross from close range.

The half time whistle went with the visitors leading three goals to one and if Woonona were going to get anything from the game they were going to have to be first scorers on resumption of play.

The Sharkies did start brightly early in the second stanza when firstly, Banks saw a free kick from a similar position to the first just skim the wrong side of the crossbar followed by a terrific defence splitting pass from Scott Curran which released Merxushi into the clear. However, when faced with a one on one with David Hamilton in the Tarrawanna goal, the Sharkies No. 11 couldn't keep his composure and the opportunity went begging.

Eight minutes after the break, the outcome of the game was put to bed when visa player Bradley Welch scored to give the Blueys a unassailable 4-1 lead. Joshua Chapple had played the international into space and his shot on the turn from the edge of the penalty area was well placed with Jardine little chance of stopping.

Banks did his best to alter the course of the game a couple of minutes later when his snap shot just whistled wide of the mark from 20 metres whilst Fetterplace supplied a cross for Russell to get on the end of but his header was also off target.

The home side refused to throw the towel in and on 68 minutes Merxhushi hit the cross bar when his free kick from deep out looked to be aimlessly floating wide of the goal but at the last instance the ball struck the framework and bounced over. Shortly after, Russell made some good inroads into the heart of the Tarrawanna penalty area before in somewhat of a scramble, Stone was on hand to clear the ball off the goal line.

Woonona kept plugging away with substitute Brendan Pattman having a strong effort on goal well saved by Hamilton and then eight minutes from time the Sharkies did grab a second goal to reward a sustained spell of pressure on the Tarrawanna defence lines.
Merxhushi who by this time had switched to the right hand side of the field and had tormented defenders on both sides of the field during the course of the game, turned Jake Morlando inside out culminating in the defender bringing his opponent down inside the penalty area with a penalty kick being awarded.

Russell made no mistake from the spot to round out the scoring in a game full of endeavour from both sides.

Merxhushi with his probing runs down both flanks was probably the pick of the losing side on the day whilst Park was undoubtedly best on field as he ran amok in mid-field with no Woonona player unable to get anywhere near him in a display which was capped off by two fine goals. Park was well supported by Stone who worked really hard for the winning side in both attack & defence.

Tarrawanna Coach, Peter Willis was more than happy with his team's first half performance in which for a change, after a couple of lean weeks, they were able to covert some chances into goals. In the second period, he felt his side defended well but was critical of his players lack of ball security when possession was turned over too cheaply. Given that the squad is down on numbers he believed it was a good team performance overall.

 

Match Stats

Woonona 2 (Cameron Banks 14', Caleb Russell 82'pen)

Tarrawanna 4 (Sangyu Park 5' 35', Sam Onana Awano 19' Bradley Welch 53')

 

Ocean Park, Woonona

Referee: Tony Bosevski

Assistant Referees: Caleb Blanch & Trae Arnold

 

Woonona: Brad Jardine, Lachlan Fetterplace (Jesse Kennedy 82'), Andrew Breslin, Christopher Gibson, Cameron Besgrove, Scott Curran, Trent Worthington, Caleb Russell, Cameron Banks (Joel Beattie 66'), Hayden Nicol (Brendan Pattman 59'), Valentino Merxhushi.

Subs Not Used: Ben Ellul, Kyle Booth

Yellow Cards: Lachlan Fetterplace 17'

 

Tarrawanna: David Hamilton, Allister Carrigan, Daniel Chapman, Jake Morlando, Samuel Chapple, Matthew Mazevski (Josh Brown 90'), Darren Stone, Joshua Chapple, Bradley Welch, Sangyu Park (Sam Isabella 85'), Sam Onana Awono (Jacob Fryday 84').

Subs not Used: Ben Leamonth, Logan Clements.

Yellow Card: Jake Morlando 82'.

 

Report by David Naylor

Web photo courtesy of Noel Wynn

Tarrawanna's Sam Onana Awono slips past two Woonona defenders.