Kerang piled on 10 unanswered goals in the second half to overpower an undermanned Lake Boga by 79 points at Riverside Park on Saturday.
Lake Boga went into the game without key defenders Matt Taverna, Daniel Dzufer and onballers Cam Johnson and Jarrod Taylor, while the Blues had to cover the loss of former coach Jesse Clark, who sustained a serious head knock at training during the week that may be season ending.
The opening term was highlighted by the performance of Pies’ bigman Jacob Simpson who completely blanketed Blues’ veteran ruckman Troy Davis.
But his midfield could not capitalise on his dominance, as the Blues streamed out of midfield. Joint coach Troy Coates kicked three goals for the quarter, and was well supported up forward by Bryce Curnow and livewire Brandon Hayes who kicked one goal each for the term.
Lake Boga’s Andrew Clark snapped truly after receiving a lovely tap from Simpson to make the margin 24 points at the first change.
Curnow looked concerned during his quarter-time address, recognising the brilliance of Simpson and demanding that his players help Davis around the ground.
The second term was a beauty, and it was great to see some good old fashioned one-on-one contests all over the ground. This unsettled the Blues with the crowd becoming more vocal as Lake Boga put their bodies on the line.
Two quick goals to Dusty Burns and great teamwork by Ryan Fox and Stewart enabled Jayden Lonergan to snap truly and bring the margin back to only 16 points at the long break.
Self-belief was strong in the Boga rooms at half-time with coach Shawn Filo urging his players to maintain the momentum from late in the quarter.
Curnow sternly reminded his players that Lake Boga had come to play and that they needed to move the ball with more pace if they were to avoid a shock loss.
A large shower of rain at half-time seemed to work in Kerang’s favour as they released the shackles that had been imposed by the young Pies. They booted six unanswered goals for the quarter with Dalrymple, Sean Hunter, Brad Pay, and Curnow getting off the chain dominating possession. The Magpies backline was under enormous pressure and if it were not for the efforts of Lincoln Frost, Harrison, Simpson, Josh Cruse-Filo, and Williams the score line could have been much worse.
The last term again saw the Blues the dominate force with Coates booting his fourth goal and Michael Runciman, who had been well held by Rhys Healy, finding space to kick two for the quarter.
To the credit of the Boga players, they kept giving their all in contested situations with Simpson even having the compliment of being tagged by two players in the last quarter.
VOTES
3 – Jacob Simpson (Lake Boga)
2 – Michael Dalrymple (Kerang)
1 – Sean Hunter (Kerang)
MATCH RESULTS
KERANG 5.1 6.5 12.7 16.11.107
LAKE BOGA 1.1 4.1 4.3 4.4.28
GOALS – KERANG – Troy Coates 4, Bryce Curnow 3, Brandon Hayes 2, Michael Runciman 2, Sean Hunter, Martin Kelly, Bradlee Pay, Harrison Saunders, Nicholas Stagg 1.
LAKE BOGA – Dustin Burns 2, Andrew Clark, Jayden Lonergan 1.
BEST – KERANG – Michael Dalrymple, Sean Hunter, Martin Kelly, Bronson Booth, Joshua Hunter, Nicholas Stagg
LAKE BOGA – Jacob Simpson, Joshua Cruse-Filo, Tyle Williams, Jayden Lonergan, Wes Harrison, Dustin Burns
