South Coast Flame FC 2 defeated by Marconi Stallions 3

Marconi Stallions won 3-2 in a thrilling game against South Coast Flame FC at Sir Ian McLennan Park on Saturday night.

The Stallions dug deep to get their first points of the season in what is usually a tough venue for away teams. Cristina Barraza opened the scoring for Flame in the 7^th minute before Charmaine Marquinez equalized for the Stallions in the 27^th minute for 1-1.

The game took a turn late in the first half when Kellie McIntyre was given a red card for her second booking in quick succession. The Stallions took until after half-time to take advantage of the extra player when Angelique Skapetis fired home in the 51^st minute.

South Coast Flame FC showed resilience after making it 2-2 through Emily Kostovski in the 53^rd minute which set up a fantastic finish. Marconi secured all three points through Erinn Cleghorn’s goal in the 65^th minute for a happy trip back up the highway.

In the earlier fixture, the Under 20’s recorded a narrow 1-0 win.

The game started in quick fashion with Marconi fashioning an early chance that was saved by the Flame keeper, Tahlia Sharrock. Despite this, Flame had the better of the early exchanges and found themselves with the best chance of the half when a cross form Shayne Atkin found Madelaine Steel who narrowly missed from close range.

Similar to the opening round, the second half is where the action really began as both sides came out firing looking for the first goal. This looked to go Marconi’s way as in the 60^th minute, a penalty was awarded for an infringement in the box. Sharrock, who was seeking her second clean sheet in as many games this season guessed correctly and saved the penalty, keeping the scores at 0-0.

As both sides continued to push for the winner, tensions rose and in the 76^th minute, Flame found themselves a player down following a red card.  The girls would have to see out the remaining minutes with 10 players.

Despite this, problem solving continued to occur and sheer effort and character allowed the Flame to stay in the game and even fashion a couple of chances. Just when the game looked to be heading towards a stalemate, Imogen Woolnough popped up on the edge of the box and fired into the bottom right corner with 60 seconds to play which saw the Flame snatch all three points.