THE Swan Hill men’s soccer team secured their 13th straight win of the season on Sunday, with a comprehensive 13-1 thrashing of the Deniliquin Wanderers in their final home match of the year.
It was a dominant performance from the ladder leading Swans, who already claimed the Bendigo Amateur Soccer League Division 2 championship last month.
After taking a 4-0 lead at half-time, the floodgates opened in the second half, with the Swans piling on nine goals after the main break.
Conner Brown continued his extraordinary form, with the league’s leading goalscorer finishing the game with his fifth hat-trick of the season, while Joseph Costa scored three goals in just his fourth match for the season.
Captain Cooper Fox found the back of the net twice, with Jason Stokes, Stephen Whittaker, Gareth Johansen also scoring, along with Ben Muir-Howie and Brady Dalton, who scored their first goals for the season.
It was a complete team performance from the Super Cup-bound Swans, with coach Tony Di Palma quick to remind that despite his team’s strong form, there were still bigger challenges ahead.
“The boys were fantastic, our passing and ability to work together as a team is starting to come together, but we’re not the finished product yet,” Di Palma said.
“Everyone always strives to improve and we’re no different, we’re under no illusions that to win it all will be difficult because there are some really good teams in our competition that we’re going to have to overcome in the finals.
“To be honest, our finals start this Sunday against La Trobe Uni, they are a classy side and will be keen to show how far they’ve come since we last played.
“They aren’t sitting second on the ladder for no reason.”
The last time the two teams met was the opening game of the season, when Swan Hill recorded a 3-1 win at home, with both teams locked into first and second on the ladder ahead of Saturday’s clash in Bendigo.
The other positive result from the weekend for Swan Hill was the under-16 boys’ team, who recorded their first win of the season with a 3-1 victory over Spring Gully in the two clubs’ triple-header in Bendigo.
Angus Transton was the hero for Swan Hill, scoring all three goals in the victory, including two first-half goals which gave the Swans a 2-0 lead at the main break.
The weekend wasn’t as fruitful for Swan Hill’s remaining BASL teams, with the club’s under-16 girls going down to Spring Gully Renegades 7-0 and the youth boys’ team beaten 16-0 to Spring Gully United.
The other match of the weekend saw Swan Hill’s women’s team suffer a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to Epsom Scorpions at home on Sunday.
Scores were locked at 0-0 for the first 82 minutes of the game, with both sides creating several chances to score but unable to break the deadlock until Epsom’s Melissa Ludeman scored the game’s only goal from outside the box.
