SL1 Vs. Essendon [Rd 9]

Waverley 3 defeated by Essendon 4.

The third placed Waverley hosted the fourth placed Essendon at home looking to cement a top two position at the half way point of the season.

The Panthers entered the game missing three of its stars: Tim Wischusen, Corey Joseph and Travis Brooks, due to AHL Viking commitments.

The Blue Boy’s showed no sign of instability, from the missing AHL representatives, with a clear dominance over the Essendon outfit. However, the Panthers kept the large home-crowd on edge with a couple of early chances failing to find the net.

It wasn’t until the fifteenth minute when Stephen Jarvis slapped a penetrating pass to Sparrow Swindells on the dot who promptly slotted a turn-around-jumper into the corner, 1-0.

This increased the ferocity in the game and history repeated itself showing that ‘no love was lost’ when Tim Thompson came off the pitch requiring stitches in his nose.

The Waverley boys rallied, bringing wave after wave of attack on the Essendon defence. Finally, the defence cracked with a well placed pass from young gun Lewis Mathews down the left gifting Simon Preston space to work, he didn’t disappoint, placing the ball past the keeper to bring the score 2-0 to Waverley.

Waverley continued its dominance with Stephen Jarvis again stepping up with a wonderful overhead pass which found Simon Preston in full stride. A cheeky mid-air tap to Danny Brennan saw him draw two defenders and outlet it straight back to S.Preston who slammed home the ball with a diving slap from the left to record his second – giving Waverley a solid 3-0 at half time.

After such an amazing first half the game looked done and dusted, or so we thought.

A rejuvenated Essendon re-entered with a point to prove. Essendon were able to convert two penalty corners from their Belgium corner specialist, which bought the scoreline to a very dangerous position of 3-2.

Waverley were under the pumped and held firm whilst trying to turn the tide. However, a full field overhead from Essendon found a free attacker who converted the field goal. Essendon pushed on and found a fourth goal from the field to take the lead late in the game, 4-3.

Waverley had last ditch effort with the Essendon keeper being sent off with three minutes left on the clock. Yet, Waverley were unable to find that final finish with various field goal attempts and two corner being stonewalled.

ZACBOG – Jarrod Glascock

The Skin Institute Award – Lewis Mathews

Goals – S.Preston 2 & Swindells 1.