On a chilly Saturday morning, the Vikings took on Spring Gully Rockets at Jack Eddy Oval.
In the first half, the Vikings, led by captain Cameron Peirce, tried to push forward at every opportunity, with centre Edward Melville seeing plenty of action early on.
The fast-moving Spring Gully team upped the pace of the game, with the Vikings responding with fast running and good ball movement. The highlight of the half was the three brilliant saves by goalkeeper Shewan Silva, whose fast reflexes kept frustrating the opposition.
Well co-ordinated play by Sophie Millar and Jesse Nye gave Aarav Bhatia the perfect opportunity to strike and he didn't disappoint with a clever goal at the end of the half.
The second half saw both teams come out attacking with Aarav and Peaches Starritt both out-manoeuvring the opposition, having shots for goal and missing only by the smallest of margins.
Viking Jed Guinan showed great skills running out of defence, with Riley Frazer and Enrique Dos Santos also strong in the back line. Goalkeeper Caden Saunders was cool under pressure when facing the determined Spring Gully strikers.
Despite the Vikings’ best efforts, these talented, younger age players went down to Spring Gully 2-1.
Under-12 Border Raiders vs Castlemaine Gold
On a cold morning, the Raiders were woken up with an early Castlemaine Gold goal that kicked the team into gear. The backline was called upon many times early in the first half, with Finn Murphy, Xavier Stewart and Alex Attalh standing tall in defence.
Ben Anthony and Billy Quirk lifted their work rates on the wings, resulting in a forward run and penalty shot on goal, with Ben making no mistake to level the scores at 1-1.
Castlemaine continued to press and the amazing efforts of Jack Dunne as goal-keeper stopped some strong chances in their tracks. The inclusion of Matthew Maxwell and Oscar Dawson into the midfield sparked the Raiders and Matthew went on to the scorecard for the Raiders to lead 2-1 at half time.
The Raiders came out firing in the second half and Nate Murphy added another goal with a great cross from Jack Gibson. With Daniel Barry always calm behind the ball and sending creative plays forward, the Raiders continued to attack.
Castlemaine fought on to score a late goal, creating tension at 3-2 for the final minutes of the game. Tommy Quirk continued to work hard and created another chance for Matthew Maxwell, who finished superbly to get the Raiders home 4-2.
Under-16 vs Kyneton
The under-16 Border Raiders took on Kyneton on Saturday in Moama.
The Border Raiders started well but were unable to capitalise on the scoreboard. Kyneton broke through the solid defence of Mason Bayley, Aiden Bruffell and Matt Whyte on the counter-attack and scored a couple of quick goals past the impressive diving efforts of Blade Bawden in goals.
Paddy Barry worked tirelessly through the middle, constantly applying pressure that led to Seb Jouault-Thomas breaking through on a great run and scoring the team’s first goal late in the first half. At half-time the Border Raiders were down 1-2.
The second half started in similar fashion with Kyneton scoring early, leaving the Border Raiders trailing 1-3. A tactical change saw Charlie Mundie shifted to central defence and he put through a long ball to Asha Davies who put Jye Dos Santos through on goal to score, making it 2-3.
Time was slipping away until Brydie Davidson applied immense pressure on the wing, causing a turnover allowing Marco Maxwell to sneak a pass to Seb, who levelled the scores.
With three minutes remaining, Jye received the ball and put it into the back of the net to see Border Raiders claim victory 4-3.
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