Albion Park White Eagles completed a stunning comeback to grab all three points in a 5-4 win over Corrimal Rangers at Memorial Park on Sunday afternoon. The Rangers quickly built a three-goal lead after Alvin Ceccoli, Tomoki Wada and Van Elia all found the back of the net before Cameron Morgan pulled a goal back for the visitors. Despite going down to ten men after Shannon Fielding was dismissed, Albion Park levelled the scores midway through the second half as Morgan completed his hat-trick, but Corrimal again pulled ahead thanks to a Tim Wylie strike in the 68^th minute. However, two goals in the final moments of the match to subs Oliver Carrasco and Shaun McRae swung the match back in favor of Albion Park and handed them victory in an epic Illawarra Mercury Premier League fixture.

Corrimal had not beaten Albion Park in the league since the side was promoted to the Premier League in 2017 - with Albion Park having netted 15 goals to Corrimal’s four across the four matches – but it was the Rangers who dominated the early stages of the match, taking the lead in the 9^th minute after a Tomoki Wada free-kick on the left side of the field found the foot of Alvin Ceccoli in the Albion Park box, with the experienced defender tapping the ball past Albion Park gloveman Brad Jardine and handing Corrimal an early lead.

Corrimal doubled their advantage two minutes later after a quick through ball from the Rangers backline found Van Elia down the right flank. Elia showed tremendous skill to move the ball past a diving Jardine before levying a cross across goal to an open Wada, who simply tapped the ball home to give Corrimal a two-goal lead.

But the Rangers were not finished, with the hosts extending their lead in the 25^th minute after Van Elia picked up a loose ball before making a short run towards the edge of the box and firing off an effort from the edge of the box which just snuck past the outstretched arms of a diving Brad Jardine and buried itself in the bottom left corner to push Corrimal’s lead to three.

However, Albion Park pulled a goal back almost instantly to return the lead to two after Cameron Morgan produced a curling free-kick which rooted Corrimal shot-stopper Nic Loe to the spot and gave the visitors a life-line after a poor start to the match.

But Albion Park’s task got significantly more difficult in the 37^th minute after Shannon Fielding was dismissed from the match after picking up his second yellow card of the afternoon, meaning the Rangers entered the sheds at the half-time break two goals and one man up.

Corrimal’s two goal lead in the second half lasted for only one minute however, as Cameron Morgan picked up his second goal of the afternoon in the 46^th minute to pull the deficit to one, with the Albion Park forward taking advantage of a scramble between the Rangers defenders in the Corrimal box to tap a loose ball past Nic Loe and make the score 3-2.

Morgan completed his hat-trick in the 63^rd minute after a free-kick from the right side of the field skimmed off a mistimed clearance from Corrimal’s Banri Kanaizumi and found the Albion Park forward on the edge of the box under pressure. But Morgan showed a calm head, opting to launch a chipped effort over the Corrimal defence and over the head of Rangers custodian Nic Loe to tie things up.

Having seen their three-goal lead fall apart, Corrimal fought hard to pull back ahead and the Rangers returned to the lead five minutes later after a Lukas Stergiou chip found the head of Tim Wylie in the Albion Park box. Wylie was able to direct his headed effort across goal and into the bottom-right corner, restoring Corrimal’s lead as the match headed into the final twenty minutes.

With both sides pushing hard for an equalizer, it was Albion Park who finally broke through again to level the scores in the 89^th minute, with substitute Oliver Carrasco grabbing one of the goals of the match thanks to a fantastic long-range strike that Corrimal shot-stopper Nic Loe had almost no chance of getting to, with Carrasco’s strike blasting into the bottom-left corner and levelling the scores up at 4-4.

However, the match had one more twist in its tale, with Albion Park firing into the lead and securing the win in the second minute of stoppage time after substitute Chris Gomez pushed the ball out to the right flank and to fellow substitute Shaun McRae with a chipped ball over the Corrimal defence. McRae was able to hold off the scrambling Corrimal defence for just long enough to craft a shot directed at goal, which managed to beat a diving Loe and find the back of the net, handing Albion Park all three points in dramatic fashion, with the White Eagles running out 5-4 winners.

 

The result sees Albion Park remain in fourth place but open up a two-point gap between the side and fifth-placed Bulli, with Paul Carter’s side hoping to extend their winning run to four matches when they host Woonona at Terry Reserve next Saturday.

Meanwhile the Rangers drop to seventh on the ladder after Bulli’s 2-1 win over Cringila shot the side past Corrimal and Wollongong United, but the Rangers will hope to return to winning ways when they host bottom-placed Cringila Lions at Memorial Park next Sunday.

Sunday 28 April 2019 at Memorial Park, Corrimal

Corrimal Rangers FC – 4 (Ceccoli 9’, Wada 11’, Elia 25’, Wylie 68’)

Albion Park White Eagles – 5 (Morgan 26’, 46’, 63’, Carrasco 89’, McRae 90+2’)

Corrimal Rangers FC: Nic LOE, Ben ZUCCO, Jason ZUFIC, Alvin CECCOLI, Banri KANAIZUMI, Dean PENDER, Lukas STERGIOU, Tomoki WADA, Sam MATTHEWS, Van ELIA, Timothy WYLIE

Subs: Matthew GALANTI (PENDER 56’), Daniel CARRENO, Paul GUIDO (ELIA 85’), Jacob MARTIN, David ZUFIC

Albion Park White Eagles: Brad JARDINE, Blake MCGINN, Shannon FIELDING, Chris NATHANIEL, Naomichi ARAKI, Robert DELBANCO, Ethan KAMBISIOS, Joel BEATTIE, Yuki UNO, Valentino MERXHUSHI, Cameron MORGAN

Subs: Shaun MCRAE (BEATTIE 66’), Chris GOMEZ (UNO 27’), Oliver CARRASCO (KAMBISIOS 63’), Kyle SENIOR

Referee – Bobby MAZEVSKI

Assistant Referees – Gareth JENKINS and Damien DENNELLY

Report by Cal Behrendt, on Twitter @CalBehrendt