The WCG Cranes District League Youth Grade Grand Final saw minor premiers Coniston take on University at Wetherall Park. Coniston – who finished top of the ladder with 52 points from their 22 matches – walked their way into the final, downing University 2-0 in the Major Semi Final to book their spot in the big match, while University had a rollercoaster of a finals series to make their way to the Grand Final. First the Students took out Fernhill 3-2 in the Qualifying Final before going down 2-0 to Coniston in the Major Semi, resulting in the side facing Fernhill yet again for a spot in the decider. Again, University fought their way past Fernhill, winning 2-0 to book a rematch against Coniston in the Grand Final.

Aside from the Major Semi Final, both sides had one win against the other to their name over the course of the regular season, with University stunning Coniston 5-1 in Round 8 before Coniston grabbed their revenge with a 5-3 win in Round 19. Coniston would no doubt be the favorites heading into the match, having just taken out University two weeks earlier, but with Grand Finals, anything can happen and fans were expecting a tense matchup.

The game started off with Coniston instantly on the front foot, with the side going a goal up within the opening six minutes. A loose bouncing ball forced University keeper Kieran Georgievski to rush out to field the ball, only for the ball to go over his head and allow Coniston’s Matthew Tschentscher to head the ball simply into an open net. However, Coniston were not content with just one goal and came agonizingly close to being two goals up within the opening ten minutes after a header from Liam McCoy went just wide of the post.

It took University some time to adjust to going a goal down so early, but as the first half begun to reach its’ middle, University began to make increasingly dangerous attacks on the Coniston goal. After a couple of shots from Matthew Sainsbury-Dale and Luke McCann from a distance, the Students got their first real chance thanks to a powerful solo run from James Galea, whose final center ball went untouched by a University foot and thus was able to be easily swept up by the Coniston defence.

Coniston came close to adding a second just before half-time in tense circumstances, with Jimmy Stewart colliding with Uni keeper Georgievski in the box but not before Stewart was able to get a shot off, which ended up rolling just wide of the goal.

However, with Coniston a goal up at the break, the Students still had to find their way back into the match, and their task was made significantly harder just six minutes into the second period, when Matthew Tschentscher added to his tally for a second time in the match, with a great run down the sideline and a well-placed finish to double Coniston’s advantage.

But University were still unable to count themselves out, and just two minutes later, they broke the Coniston clean sheet with Luke McCann finishing off a great piece of back-and-forth passing play between himself and Alex Coetzer. This forced Coniston into going back on the attack, and Franco Ledsema – who was brought on at the half-time break for Peete Jowandie – almost pulled Coniston back to being two ahead, but his final touch in his one-on-one with keeper Kieran Georgievski was lacking and his shot went inches wide of the goalpost.

Finally, Coniston were able to regain their two-goal lead in the 74’ minute, with a powerful individual run from Jimmy Stewart allowing him to simply slot the ball home and bring Coniston to a 3-1 lead over the Students with just over 15 minutes to play.

But as the adage goes, it isn’t over until the fat lady sings, and University were able to pull a goal back just over five minutes later when a handball in the box from Coniston’s Todd Rigby giving Alex Coetzer his first goal of the match, with the University player slotting home the awarded penalty to make the score 3-2 with ten minutes to play.

Just two minutes later, University stunned the crowd by equalizing the match at 3-3, with Coetzer picking up his second goal with a well-placed shot past Coniston keeper Jared Cabor to stun the Coniston fans into silence. But the match still had one more twist in the tale and in the 86^th minute University were awarded their second penalty in six minutes, with referee Nathan Wotton awarding a penalty for the tackle on Benjamin Joyce in the box.

Again, it was Alex Coetzer who was to step up and take the crucial penalty, and again Coetzer got the better of Cabor, sending his shot straight down the middle to send the University fans into rapture and put the Students 4-3 up with less than five minutes to go.

Coniston, now on the back foot after leading for the majority of the match, pushed hard to grab a late goal and send the match to extra time, but University showed strong reserve and scrambling to ensure that any potential shot from the Coniston front-line was restricted. Surprisingly, it was University who had the best chance of the dying moments, with Benjamin Joyce being denied a great goal by an even greater reflex save from Jared Cabor to keep the Students from sealing the match in the dying minutes. However, University managed to see out the clock and hold on for an epic comeback victory and the Youth Grade championship, with Coetzer picking up the man of the match award for his game-winning hattrick for the Students.

Coniston FC – 3 (Tschentscher 6’, 51’, Stewart 74’)

University FC – 4 (McCann 53’, Coetzer 82’, 84’, 86’)

Saturday the 23^rd of September 2017 at Wetherall Park.

Coniston FC – Jared Cabor, Damian McGovern, Heh Reh, Liam McCoy, Connor O’Neill, Peete Jowanie, Matthew Tschentscher, Djordje Uzelac, Jimmy Stewart, Rory Evans, Matthew Poposki

Subs – Daniel Poposki, Franco Ledesma (on for Jowanie), Jason Sauro (on for Poposki), Todd Rigby (on for Tschentscher), Damon Gaudiosi

University FC – Kieran Georgievski, Tyler Whitton, Harry Groeller, Alex Purvis, James Galea, Ryan Kurtz, Eamon Flint-Peterson, Luke McCann, Alex Coetzer, Matthew Sainsbury-Dale, Conor O’Brien

Subs – Benjamin Joyce (on for Sainsbury-Dale), Nelson McCleod (on for Flint-Peterson), Wyatt Cutting (on for O’Brien), Claude Cordero, Charlie Farr-Hannah

Referee – Nathan Wotton

Assistant Referees – Liam Webb, Aaron Wardle

Report by Cal Behrendt, on Twitter @CalBehrendt

Photo courtesy of Pedro Garcia