Hattricks, Flips and Equalising Kicks: Rangers and White Eagles play out entertaining draw
Corrimal and Albion Park rounded out this week’s Illawarra Premier League action in fine form, playing out an enthralling 3-all draw. Despite taking an early lead through a Rick Goodchild header, Corrimal would have to come from behind twice in the second half as Cameron Morgan showed his prowess in front of goal for Albion Park, scoring a superb hattrick.
During a tense opening, the first good chance of the game came the way of Corrimal in the ninth minute which they took full advantage of, as Goodchild ran onto a pinpoint accurate cross which he duly headed into the goal.
However, as the half hour mark approached, the game began to open up with a flurry of chances for both sides. The first chance fell to White Eagle’s Cody Waller, who could not believe that Corrimal’s goalkeeper, Kaydin Harrison, had saved his flick on the half-volley from the edge of the six-yard box.
The resulting corner from Harrison’s save, created an opportunity for Corrimal to break forward on the counter, with Takao Teramoto playing a precise switch ball into the path of Goodchild who was bursting into the box. Unfortunately for Goodchild, he sliced his shot well-wide of the goal.
From the goal-kick, Albion Park moved the ball up the field quickly to the feet of Morgan on the edge of the penalty area, whose swift turn wrong-footed his defender which gave him the space to slot his shot into the bottom left corner.
Following the frantic couple of minutes that culminated in Morgan’s equaliser, the match went into a slight lull until it exploded once again in the 14th minute of the second half, when Morgan scored his second by heading home a corner which he capped off with an acrobatic front flip celebration.
However, Albion Park’s joy was short lived as in the space of two minutes Corrimal equalised through a corner of their own with Jake Morlando sending his header into the back of the net.
In the 68th minute, Corrimal came close to reclaiming the lead when Goodchild looked to curl his shot from the top of the 18-yard box but hit the crossbar.
In the 70th minute though, Albion Park did take the lead, as Morgan bagged his hattrick with an emphatic drive from the top of the box that burst the back of the net.
It was déjà vu, with another celebratory flip followed once again by an immediate Corrimal equaliser as Goodchild found space in the box from the kick-off and confidently finished to score his second.
The sense of anticipation of a winning goal among the crowd was palpable and in the 83rd minute both sets of fans held their breath as Corrimal were denied by millimetres. Goodchild smashed his half volley into the left-upright.
Alas, in the final minutes a winner never came as both teams were forced to settle for a point a piece.
Both sides will be disappointed that they didn’t walk away with a victory, however, will be happy to have found the net on multiple occasions and will look to capitalise on their attacking outputs next round when Corrimal take on Coniston, whilst the Eagles play Tarrawanna.
Corrimal: 3 (Goodchild 9’ 72’, Morlando 61’)
Albion Park White Eagles: 3 (Morgan 30’ 59’ 70’)
Corrimal Rangers: 1. HARRISON Kaydin, 3. PENDER Dean, 4. Guido PAUL, 5. MORLANDO Jake, 6. Lukas STERGIOU, 7. TERAMOTO Takao, 8. GOODCHILD Rick, 9. MATTHEWS Samuel, 11. WYLIE Tim, 13. KYRIAKOUDES Peter, 14. TYSON Zack.
Substitutes: 2. IVANEZA Ivan, 12. SAFFIOTI Christian, 15. GALANTI Matthew (Pender), 99. ZUFIC David.
Albion Park W.E.: 1. COAD Blake, 3. MARTIN Jacob, 4. SUZAKI Kohei, 13. NATHANIEL Chris, 5. LEIGHTON Jake, 6. WEHMEYER Cody, 8. MITROVSKI Brendan, 10. NIKOLOVSKI Jordan, 7. MORGAN Cameron, 9. BEATTIE Joel, 11. WALLER Cody.
Substitutes: 12. GOMEZ Chris, 14. VRANKOVIC Dane, 15. WILSON Zane (Nikolovski), 16. SEITARIDIS Aris, 31. ARMAND Nick.
Date: 23 August 2020
Venue: Memorial Park
Referee: Bobby Mazevski
Assistant Referees: Greg Reid & Lachie McRae.
Report by Nic Wilson, on Twitter @_nicwilson
Photo courtesy of Kiah Hufton
