THE Mariners Academy teams are in to their last week of the regular season and were all on the road last weekend for their round 21 games.
THE Mariners Academy teams are in to their last week of the regular season and were all on the road last weekend for their round 21 games.
The Grade 13 to Grade 18 Boys teams travelled to Granville on Saturday to play Granville Rage. With the Coast-s teams battling for the 2012 Boys Super Youth League Club Championship with Sydney University, the positive results of last Saturday – with four wins – added 12 points to the Academy-s yearly total.
Although conditions were blustery, the Grade 13 Boys started the day for the Academy teams with a 3-1 win over Granville. The win places the Academy boys second on the ladder and assures them of either first place or second in this year-s minor premiership. Currently sitting first is Sydney University. Sydney University and the Mariners Academy meet in the last round of the competition next week.
The Grade 14 Boys also won on Saturday with a 3-0 result. The Grade 14 Boys are assured of a second place in the minor premiership as they also face Sydney University this weekend with Sydney University sitting a comfortable four points ahead of the Mariners Academy team. However, it is a long way back to third placed Granville who sit some 12 points behind the Academy boys.
The Grade 15 Boys also kept Granville Rage scoreless with a 2-0 win. The Academy-s win, and the results in other games on Saturday, cemented the Academy-s claim on the Minor Premiership for Season 2012.
It was a similar story for the Grade 16 Boys who also collected the minor premiership with a 1-0 win over Granville.
Unfortunately, the Grade 18 Boys were unable to continue the winning streak but hope to bounce back in their game against Sydney University next week who they beat 1-0 in their earlier Round 11 encounter.
The Girls and Womens Academy teams travelled to ELS Halls Park on Sunday to play North West Sydney Koalas in their round 21 matches.
The Grade 12 girls came away with a 0-0 draw while the Grade 14 Academy girls went down 2-0 to NWS Koalas. This result was repeated for the Grade 16 Girls which sees the minor premiership slowly slipping from the grasp of the Grade 16 Academy Girls. Illawarra 16s won their encounter with Sydney University which now puts the Illawarra Stingrays on top of the table.
In the Reserve Grade game, the Academy women won 2-1 whilst the First Grade women suffered a 5-0 loss.
All Academy girls and womens teams are home again next weekend, this time to play Inter Lions in the last Round of the 2012 Season.
Donna Slater
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Western NSW Mariners hosted Mounties Wanderers sitting one point behind Mounties (who were 3rd) in the SYL Club Championship.
Unfortunately at the end of the day-s play, Mounties were able to extend their advantage to seven points.
In the Under 13s, Western NSW started positively and were rewarded with a goal to Kurtley Golden before Mounties lifted in the second half and grabbed an equaliser.
The 14s for Western NSW fighting for a place in the top three were stunned by a determined Mounties team and had to settle for a 1-1 draw.
Going into the day Western NSW were second in the 15s and played third placed Mounties who scored early. The Mariners tried everything to get back into the match but were unable to do so.
The 16s put up a strong performance against a solid team but were unable to hold them out in going down 2-0.
The Mariners 18s, still fighting for the Premiership, were playing well and leading 2-0 with 30 minutes to go before a late rally from Mounties saw them peg back the two goals. Mitch Hutchings and Nick Rutherford got onto the scoresheet.
Andrew Fearnley
