Casuarina claim crown
AN early strike from Jessie Stevens won Casuarina the Open Women’s premiership at Darwin Football Stadium last night.
In a performance that was based on defence, the early goal gave the Rowdies the confidence they needed to go on and win the contest.
The two teams met in the major semi-final only two weeks back where Casuarina beat the premiers 4-0, but Hellenic had defeated the Rowdies on every occasion during the home and away season.
It made for an interesting decider, in which Hellenic started off the stronger of the two sides. The Blues created a number of half chances inside the box, but after holding off a mountain of pressure, Casuarina went up the other end and capitalised.
Stevens found the ball inside the box and propped backwards, before shooting the ball into the back of the net with pace on 11 minutes.
Hellenic controlled most of the possession early on in the second half, but the Casuarina defence worked as a unit successfully.
The Rowdies continually defended waves of Hellenic’s attack, with Emma Zaymund especially strong in the centre of defence and goalkeeper Kimberley Friend mistake-free.
The Blues had a great chance to equalise only three minutes out from fulltime when Georgia Halkitis Jr found herself one on one with the Friend in goals.
Unfortunately for Hellenic, her shot was sprayed to the right-hand side and fulltime was blown shortly after.
Casuarina’s Lusitana Santos, who played in her 200th match, said it was a sweet victory.
“It’s amazing, the hard work paid off, we are so happy,” she said. “I told my girls from the start we needed to score first to win the game and we led all the way and stayed solid.
“We are so pleased; it means I can hang my boots up now.”