Scotch College

Match Reports - Round 8 - 21 June 2008

Seniors

1st XI

Scotch 3 - 0 Geelong College

G Patouras

3-0 Scotch victory. A wonderful win in which all boys played well. Although a long time in coming the win was very good indeed. All boys need to be congratulated on their behaviour and attitude. Great leadership was exhibited by the Captain Laclan Cohen (who himself had 9 shots on goal for the day.) The defence was admirably led by players Kounantatakis, Palazzo and a strong and vocal Cameron Sharpe. Anthony Tran had much of the ball and made many runs into the forward line. The first goal was scored by Justin Nikolovski, the second by Nick Jarman and the third by Sam Shearer (penalty, a crude tackle on Versace Wong). Players McMahon, Harris, Portet and Dean gave a great deal of run for the day with Portet and Dean having clear shots on goal. A great team effort and an enjoyable drive back to Scotch. A special mention to Chris Stockdale who took over goal keeping duties from an injured Michael Hopwood. A daunting task but performed well stopping two strong shots on goal.

Well done to all the boys. Thanks again to the parents who traveled all the way to Geelong College. The way in which the College Song was sung in the clubroom by the boys after the game certainly reflected how the players valued such a performance.

2nd XI

Scotch 2 - 0 Carey

D Latimer

The seconds team arrived at Scotch early on Saturday morning with plenty of enthusiasm. There was a noticeable vibe as the boys warmed up, which remained intact when the game finished. To everyone's delight we notched up our first win of the season 2-0 against good opposition in Carey.

Although Carey were a skilled and organised team, the difference between the sides throughout the match was obvious. We were hungrier for the ball at every one on one contest and we completely dictated the first half of play. Unlike past weeks, where we've looked timid in patches, each and every player played tough man-on-man soccer, denying and frustrating their direct opponents. As a team, we played with a confidence not yet seen this year, passing in slick sequences from deep in defence to all over the ground. Our forwards and midfield were streaming forward with intent at every opportunity and it seemed only a matter of time before we hit the back of the net. The half finished with two fantastic long range goals from midfielders Anthony Ryan and Inesh Hensman. In the huddle it was a good feeling knowing all the pressure and effort we'd been applying had paid off.

In the second half we let down our guard a bit, happy to sit on the two goal buffer. We gave players spells in different positions and without being complacent tried to get the most enjoyment out of the game as possible. However, Carey had other ideas, throwing everything they had at us. But demonstrating overall discipline, we remained switched on the whole half weathering the storm and securing the win.

It was far and away our best peformance individually and as a team. It’s hard to distinguish our best players as every single player had a brilliant game with minimal blunders. A superb effort to kill a streak of many losses with a new found intensity chasing, supporting and tackling.

3rd XI

Scotch 1 - 1 Wesley

M Keks

On a freezing cold morning, on a small pitch, and with a disappointing referee, the Scotch 3rds played their best match for the season so far. Though we didn't win, we deserved to; our dominance in the first half was virtually total. We were only able to get a single goal however, and in the second half Wesley had more opportunities. Early in the half, they managed to equalise, but we kept pushing for a winner, which never quite materialised. Our defence was especially solid, with exemplary marking and awareness. If we continue to play like this, we will win many more than we lose.

Goal: Gan Best: Wilkinson, Pointon, Bethune.

4th XI

Scotch 3 - 2 Wesley

W Riedler

The 4ths soccer had a narrow win 3 - 2 against Wesley at Glen Waverley in atrocious conditions – cold, wind blowing and occasional showers. All the boys played well but as in previous games too many chances were missed and many opportunities were not converted into goals. Towards the end of the game we got a penalty against us for hand ball – which actually was not a hand ball – but ref is always right!!!

5th Red

Scotch vs Carey

J Kafkas

5th Blue

Scotch vs St Kevins

A Vickers

5th Gold

Scotch vs Xavier

P Astruc

Year 10

10A

Scotch 3 – 0 Carey

E Broadbent

Scotch opened the match and made their mark early as Strangword scored in the first 5 minutes. The first half was dominated by Scotch with B. Murphy and Strangword applying pressure early with plenty of shots. Carey was unable to penetrate the cast steel defence, which was S. Murphy, Ravida and Pachouri playing in sweeper. Just prior to the break, Carey's goaly had run to the top of the box to stop Strangword from scoring his second. Strangword passed it back to Whitelock who was in position on the half-way line. Whitelock kicked it up to himself and took an incredible long shot from inside the centre circle. Eyes all around the field were fixed on the long looping ball which reached the goal on the full before the keeper could beat it away. Scotch went into the break with spirits soaring sure of the imminent win.

Going into the second half, the boys were solid with great performances from Palazzo and Holland, always going in hard and winning the ball. Ravida had a great half with runs and great tackles completely dominating the right side of the field. S. Murphy was always on parade defending the left side with, despite his gigantism, great gutsy heading skills. Pachouri was also a great performer, being completely dominant over any ball which slipped the defence. Strangword wasn't finished with Carey yet, as he took the ball in to the box and managed to fumble it to the right side of the keeper where Wong was waiting expecting the glory of a first season goal. Nevertheless, Strangword couldn't stop his instinctive nature, he battled it out to grab the last goal, which did in turn almost cost us the goal. From the great selfless performances from both Wong and Strangword, a goal was scored. And so, after a great goal attempt from Palazzo which was just tapped clear from the keeper, the ref sounded full time.

10B

Scotch 6 - 0 Carey

A Ouzas

This week saw the 10B team come together in what was a fine display of total football. Fresh from a training victory over the A's, the team was full of confidence going into this game. They met a Carey outfit that they had already beaten comfortably earlier this season. With the coach nowhere to be seen in the earlier stages (due to a shocking misreading of fixture) the boys took it upon themselves to prove how well they can function. Two early goals saw Scotch ahead and completely dominating all aspects of the field. With defence now the strongest it has been all season, the ball was constantly in Scotch's half. Shots were coming from all angles but we were unable to capitalise on the possession. The second half saw more dominance with the opposition only able to send long balls in hope something would eventuate. Of course, nothing did..for them. A stunning shot by Dave L made it 3-0 and he scored another later on to make it 3 goals from 2 games for the pocket-rocket who controls the wing. With the game in the bag the team moved to a 3-4-3 and 2 more goals from strikers Tristan and George made the final score 6-0. A great display of team effort showed what this side is capable of.

10C Red

Scotch 3 - 0 Haileybury

J Jackowski

With a full team and Charlie Wang back in goal, the Reds were too good for Haileybury.

James Kim set up an easy tap in for Daniel Teh in the first half and then in the second half James Kim and Kiko Chounamountry both added goals in quick succession to seal victory mid-way through the second half.

Best Players: Phillip Tan, Patrick Ho and James Kim.

10C Blue

Scotch 2 - 1 St Kevins (gold)

T Raynor

Saturday saw our third game against St Kevin's Gold, and as one might predict it was a close game. Scotch however were playing very close to full strength and were keen to avenge the defeat of last week.

That said, the game was conducted in a good manner with few free kicks. Scotch opened the scoring with an early goal, a tap in by Bavily. Perfect timing and positioning from our top scorer. Scotch continued to play well and for the first time in many weeks were playing flowing football. Lee was playing very well in defence and Teng, after the first, half was making sweeping passes to the forwards.

Our attacking players had several close runs but it was left to Rizkalla, our new player to score the second and effectively put the game out of St Kevin's reach. A goal by St Kevin's helped to reflect the closeness of the match, but Scotch were certainly the dominant side. A very good effort by all.

Man of the Match: Jeffrey Lee

Year 9

9A

Scotch 3 - 5 Wesley

N Konstantatos

(Coached by Dr Mark Johnston this week)

The 9As played Wesley on a wet Wesley pitch. From the first whistle Scotch attacked and came close to scoring, but within minutes Wesley scored against the run of play. Scotch quickly replied to this and to a second Wesley goal. With the score at 2-2 at half-time there was everything to play for. Unfortunately Wesley were stronger in the second half and quickly scored. However, the best goal of the game followed when Hamish McNab headed in a beautiful Tom Druitt cross. Scotch battled on till the end but could not reply to two more Wesley goals. All spectators agreed that it was a great match, and the Scotch boys could all hold their heads high for a valiant effort.

Scotch: Best players Chris Oloronshaw, Tom Druitt, Adam Fitzgerald-Quirk, Scott Carson, Wills Gherardin

Goals: David Newland, Lawrence Eglezos, Hamish McNab

9B

Scotch 5 - 2 Carey

O Marquet

We were back on our home game of Lower Melville West to face Carey on this cold and wet Saturday morning, eager to see if the serious effort we had put in training our defence would pay. But when the referee told us that Peter and Lyndon, two key players of our defence, would not be able to play wearing their glasses, we realised it was going to be a testing game for Cameron, Lachie, Michael and Wilson, who would have to hold the line. But salvation came from the forwards who managed a fantastic start, scoring two goals in 4 minutes, taking the Carey defence completely by surprise. This gave us time and confidence to get ourselves organised, and when Carey recovered from this K.O, and we managed to keep control of the game. Phil, Alasdair, Stephen and Mark scored great goals, greatly helped by Raymond who played an awesome game and has to be nominated as Man of the Match. Final score was 5-2, and the defence, more challenged in second half, kept calm and collected. This was one of our best games this season.

9C Red

Scotch vs Haileybury

D Wolfe

9C Blue

Scotch 1 – 4 Haileybury

D James

After taking plenty of the match warm-up time to find the correct venue at the Keysborough campus at Haileybury, the boys stepped on to the pitch confidently reminding themselves that they had beaten this team 18-0 the year before. That confidence was shattered within the first minute as it was clear to see that this was not the same team. In fact they were far from it, with the (less than odd) appearance of A's level players. They did extremely well in the first half, scoring the first goal with a well executed move. But we struck back almost immediately with a tap-in from Rob Walker past their incredibly skillful goalkeeper. At this point things looked good. Maybe the team would be able to hold on for a draw. But it was not to be as they scored another 2 goals to round out the half.

We changed our goalkeeper at half-time, although there was no way we could have blamed him for the fact that 3 goals had been let in, they had cut open the defence well and truly. Mark Sudholz, a member of the other 9C team stepped into goals. He did well as did the invigorated defence. Only 1 goal was scored in the second half bringing to the end the 4-1 loss, our first in the last 7 matches. I believe the boys will learn more from this experience than from many of our wins, better luck next time.

Year 8

8A Red

Scotch 1 - 3 Xavier (Burke Hall)

J Astruc

A well contested, if physical from the Xavier team, game where Scotch did not take its chances when they occurred.

Jason Ghaly and C MacFarlane were back after significant abscences. Peter Massarany and B Grace from the 8A Blue (which has a bye) played well.

8A Blue

BYE

T Scott

8B Red

Scotch 2 - 5 Xavier (Burke Hall)

J Jewitt

We had a 5-2 loss to the same Burke Hall we lost to earlier in the year. Despite looking dominant in the first 15mins, where we went 2-0 up, we steadily conceded goals from there on with loose defending. Jono R scored both goals with some near post strikes. Ben Jackson, coming down for one game from the A's, played very well with our main attacks coming through his runs down the right.

8B Blue

Scotch 1 - 7 Haileybury

P Roylance

The 8B Blue team faced a challenge from a Haileybury team that was predominately made up of their A team. They showed superior skill at times dancing around some of our players who valiantly competed against them. At half time the match was in the balance with Haileybury with a goal lead with the score locked at 1-2. Haileybury scored an early goal, which was eventually cancelled out by a Tim Sladden effort. Tim has played very well this season and has been a consistent goal scorer. Scotch dominated periods of the first half using the full width of the pitch to cause some headaches for the opposition defenders. This week we had Daniel and Toby helping out in defence and they played very well but Haileybury proved to be too strong knocking in 5 goals in the second half, one of which was an unfortunate own goal. At the end of the day we played a better opposition and managed to have them on the back foot throughout the first half, but their skill and intensity caused a few mistakes at the back, which resulted in heads being lowered and the floodgates being opened. But throughout the second half we still pushed to get more goals on the board and were only denied by the post and goal line clearances. The final score was 1-7, Tim S, Daniel S, Toby and Fraser were our best players.

8C Red

Scotch 2 - 0 Haileybury (magenta)

S Ng

The Scotch team started well with some nice passing between our players, with a notable passage of play through Oliver Nicol splitting the Haileybury defence with a fine through ball however Andrew Acutt uncharacteristically sprayed the shot just wide of the left post. Scotch had many opportunities in the first half but were unable to crack the Haileybury goals with some fine defending from the Haileybury centre backs and fine saves from their number 1. The half ended nil all.

The second half was like the first, with Scotch pressing for a breakthrough, however the oppositions strong defence line, kept the Scotch attackers limited to only shooting outside the box. Nick Bernardo tried to break the defence with darting runs from the right wing but was unable to capitalise on his speed. The game went on until the last 10 minutes when a brilliant strike from Tom Wong from outside the box on a half volley, which lobbed over the keeper and into the net. It was an inspirational goal, which inevitably led to the second from Acutt. The Scotch defence held well, considering they were sometimes outnumbered 5 to 3, because of a tactical change to provide more pressure on Haileybury.

The 8c reds played well and looked like the team to beat in the division.

8C Blue

Scotch 2 – 1 St Kevins

Dr Xu

Year 8C Blue soccer team had a very tough game against St Kevins on Saturday. At the beginning of the game, St Kevins had several good chances to score a goal. Thanks to our good defence team and goal keeper, they did not get a goal. Our boys then learned what the tactics the opposite team had. So they changed their tactics accordingly to create good opportunities to get a goal. But the defence team of St Kevins was also a strong one with the help from their mid fielders. Both teams had a draw by the end of the first half time. After the break, we strengthened our attacking with support of mid fielders. About 10 minutes after the start of the second half time, Andrew got the ball and quickly passed it onto William who got the ball passing through two defenders and kicked a goal. In the last 20 minutes or so, players from both teams seemed tired and did not create good chances for a goal. Our boys kept one goal until the end of the game.

Year 7

7A

Scotch vs Xavier (Bourke Hall)

S Hodges

7B Red

Scotch 1 - 5 St Kevins

S Liu

Yr 7 Red B Team played their last game this term with some injuries or absentees. However, the boys were playing much better defence this time. St. Kevins scored the first goal the first half and Scotch boys immediately responded to draw the level. Unfortunately, the second half our boys were tired and St Kevins team was obviously physical team and they scored another 4 goals. Physical fitness is the issue that we need to address because soccer is a very physical game and everybody is expected to play 60 minutes.

7B Blue

Scotch 2 - 2 Xavier (Kostka)

P Lewis

Goals: Andrew Copolov, Shaun Anthony

Overall a good game with some promising passing and good defence. Lack of power in passes and shooting on goal remains the key issue for the team.

Hopefully all will enjoy a good break and work on developing powerful shots on goal.

7C

Scotch 2 - 4 Haileybury (magenta)

R Papuga/S Francis

The 7C’s packed their lunch and headed down to Keysborough to play Haileybury Magenta 7C on a miserable Saturday morning. After last weekend’s heroics, the lads were looking to build on their goal scoring prowess, and enhance their reputation as a force to be reckoned with, in the 7C league.

A few late arrivals saw the line up change several times before kickoff, but as the referee blew for the start of the game, Scotch managed to have 11 on the park.

Keeping a clean sheet was always going to be difficult without sweeper Aaron Chang, who had taken ill the day before, but Jeremy Tan stepped up to fill the role

The damp conditions tended to fancy HM as they moved forward in packs, with one skilful lad looking to be the difference between the sides.

Long goal kicks from Christen Paulson were a feature of the half, sending us into attack with one kick most of the time.

Outstanding tackles from Evan Xia and Steven Jakubowicz showed HM that we weren’t about to sit back and let them dictate the game.

However, the Scotch lads managed to cop three goals before the half, leaving us plenty of work to do in the second half, along with the departure of Jeremy Tan, who had came all the way for just half a game.

The start of the second half started better, with Scotchies using the width of the park to their advantage.

The ball was switched over to the right, and Richard Lau ended up with the ball at the top of the box. Dribbling into the box, Richard cracked the ball, and over the keeper it went to land in the top corner of the net. Scotchies down 3-1.

Later in the second half, further pressure from the lads in red resulted in a goal mouth scramble, and Joshua Vuk popped up to slam it into the back of the net. Joshua is now the 7C’s leading goal scorer with two goals for the season.

A late consolation goal ended the game at 4-2, and the 7C’s most competitive game to date.

The lads have now proven that last week’s goal wasn’t a fluke, and can get a few more on the scoreboard for the remaining season. In the coming weeks the coaching staff will be looking at tightening up the defence, to see if we can get a clean sheet before the season wraps up.