South Coast Flame concluded their exhaustive and difficult week with a 5-3 loss away from home to Granville Rage. Flame weren’t without chances however taking nothing away from Rage, they were clinical on Saturday night.
It was a high intensity start from both teams however it was clear right from the opening minute that Rage were not going to let Flame settle into the match.
On two minutes, a quick break from Rage found Nikola Todoroski who created a little bit of space before firing just over.
Just a few minutes later, Matthew Mazevski combined well with Genki Iwata before the latter hooked his shot from the edge of the box just wide.
Rage struck early through Jacob Caruccio on 14 minutes. He latched onto a loose ball on the edge of the box before curling his shot perfectly into the top corner. It was a great finish.
Just four minutes later, Rage made it two. A cross was to the far post was headed back to the edge of the area where Jad Moussa let rip a shot that fired into the roof of the net. Two cracking goals set a strong platform for Rage whilst Flame were looking for answers.
Flame started to exert some control of possession with some good movement going forward. Some neat combination play involving Mazevski, Zander Alston and Michael Trajkovski ended with a shot from Iwata that needed a save from Samuel Bortolazzo.
Just a few minutes later, Alston fired a shot from the edge of the box that drew another fine save from Bortolazzo.
Flame were enjoying a good period and they were rewarded with Iwata played through on goal. He neatly tucked it away to halve the deficit on 33 minutes.
Flame went into the sheds on a high despite being down by a goal.
Right after the restart, a well worked corner set piece saw Mazevski and Iwata again link up. Iwata played a ball across goal with three Flame players all unable to get a foot to the ball. A golden chance gone begging and perhaps turning point in the match.
Just a minute later, Ante Tomic went on a weaving run dissecting the Flame defensive line and smashing home an impressive individual effort that made it 3-1 to Rage.
With Flame still in shock from that one, Todoroski made it 4-1 two minutes later after burying a good opportunity into the bottom corner.
Rage had their tails up and Moussa stung the finger tips of Jordan Bruce with another strong effort on the hour.
Moussa darting through the Flame defence once again just two minutes later before he was brought down. A penalty was awarded and Tomic made no mistake making it 5-1.
Credit to the Flame though, despite the adversity and current result, they kept battling and on 67 minutes, some neat work on the left from Namito Tsuchiya saw him link with Trajkovski who had his effort well stopped by Bortalozzo.
Just three minutes later, an Iwata cross saw Trajkovski add to his impressive tally as he flicked in past Bortalozzo from close range to make it 5-2.
Right on full time, a well placed free kick just outside the box from Yianni Fragogiannis added a bit more respectability to the scoreline however the damage was already done as Rage extended their unbeaten record against Flame.
The under 20 put in a strong performance winning 3-0. It could have been more but not for some outstanding saves from the Granville goalkeeper.
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