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Round 5 Match Report – South Coast Blaze vs Sutherland Stingrays

Round 5 Match Report – South Coast Blaze vs Sutherland Stingrays

Under 23s

South Coast Blaze started with their tried and tested mid court of Kiah Yealland, Clare McCrohon and Selene Chadrawy. Defence was strong with Bilyana Milevski coming up with some crucial intercepts early in the piece to set the team up for a one goal lead after the first quarter.

An even scoring second quarter saw the Blaze go into half time maintaining their one goal lead. A few missed shots and some unlucky rebounds towards the end of the third quarter saw the Blaze two down at the end of the third.

Fighting back from as many as four goals down in the fourth, the Blaze saved their run until the final two minutes, putting on 3 goals in a row to draw at 41 all with 10 seconds to go and a Stingrays Centre Pass. Wing Defence Selene Chadrawy came storming off the line to pull an intercept and fire the ball into the Blaze shooters with four seconds to go. A contact call gave Ky-Mani Schwenke the penalty shot after the final buzzer to win the game.

Ky-Mani Schwenke’s shot teetered on the ring and looked like falling short for what seemed like an eternity before falling back inside the ring to give Blaze their fifth win in a row. Can perform under pressure #OurBlaze.

Opens

South Coast Blaze started strongly with their attackers connecting early with Shooters Brice and McFadden. Davies and Begley again settling into their formidable mid court form to ensure the Sutherland Stingrays Defenders where caught off guard.  Whilst the Blaze Defenders mounted pressure to see early rebounds and intercepts inside of the Stingrays goal circle. This helped the Blaze secure a 1 goal lead in the first quarter.

The game certainly indicating it was going to be a hard fought battle, with a second half display of turnovers at goal ends, unforced errors and rebounds between both sides. The final quarter score now in favour of Sutherland 28-23.

Blaze pushed early in the 3rd quarter to regain control however unforced errors by the home team allowed Stingrays to view their post. Blaze Defence (Talanoa, Chadrawy, Bradley and Davies) put to task to shut down the Stingrays attack as they capitalised and scored off Blaze ball possession. Heading into the final quarter Stringrays now outright lead 49-36.

Blaze fought hard to the final whistle, turning over 6 opposition balls keeping Stingrays scoreless in the first 4 minutes and taking the quarter 14-12 however they were unable to close the gap as the clock counted down. Stingrays victorious against the Blaze 61-50.

A strong effort by our Opens who continue to improve each week as they work to build new combinations in an extremely competitive league.