Vikings and Saints in frantic action
RUGBY LEAGUE
The final round of rugby league’s Appliance Shed Fox Memorial kicked off with seven teams with something to play for but it marked the end of the line this season for the Bay Roskill Vikings and the Marist Saints.
A frantic finish in the Marist Saints’ clash with the Northcote Tigers saw them win 28-20 after a last-second try right on the hooter.
The Tigers were looking to comeback from their loss to Bay Roskill last week and found themselves up 14-0 going into halftime.
It took until the 47th minute for Marist to finally crack the Northcote defence, Tom Kavaliku crossing near the posts giving Simon Ieremia an easy conversion.
Kavaliku was involved again when the Saints crossed for their second through hard running centre Josh Tafili.
A miss to Ieremia had the Tigers still up 14-10 but it was game-on.
Marist really seemed to have hit their straps and with just 10 minutes remaining hit the lead through Misi Ma’u.
With three minutes to go the Tigers scored outwide to bring it back to within two points but the Saints went in again right on the hooter to take out the game.
After grabbing a valuable win against the Tigers last Saturday, the Bay Roskill Vikings were looking to go two from two this week, something they have not been able to do this year.
But what stood in front of them was a Glenora Bears pack looking to defend the newly regained Konica Minolta Roope Rooster.
A great start to Tee Mahe and his Glenora Bears saw him cross for an early double.
In the engine room Kyle Bahn crossed to hand the Bears a significant 18-0 lead only a quarter of the way through the game.
The Vikings hit back with a try to Reece Tamasi after great build-up work by Dale Maher and young Jonathon Wea had the Bears backpedalling fast.
Tamasi received a pass out wide and went in untouched.
But it was the Bears who finished the half with the last points when James Taumate went in to put them out to a healthy 28-6 lead at the break.
With both teams entering into their final 40 minutes of the 2013 season it was all or nothing and for Bay Roskill relegation was on the line.
It was Glenora who managed to score first again, Aaron Booth setting up Junior Fotu who went in out wide under a swarm of defenders.
A couple of Bay Roskill consolation tries gave their fans something to cheer about but in the end another 50 points were put on the Vikings by the Bears and they went down 52-16.