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FFA Centre of Excellence 12 (Jay Barnett 8’, Charlie Mavros 19’, 44’, Lleyton Brooks 53’, 63’, Mirza Muratovic 65’, 71’, Lous D’Arrigo 77’, 80’, Kai Trewin 82’, James Fletcher 83’, 88’)def. Riverina Rhinos 0

    The FFA Centre of Excellence did their bit to keep in touch with Canberra Olympic on Saturday with a 12-goal thumping of the Riverina Rhinos at the AIS.

Jay Barnett got the youngsters underway after just eight minutes with a good finish, before Charlie Mavros got his first of the afternoon just over ten minutes later to leave the visitors reeling early. The CoE continued to pile on the pressure throughout the half and Mavros completed his brace on the brink of the interval to give the hosts a three-goal lead at the break.

    But the second half needed only eight minutes for first blood, and from Lleyton Brooks’ first goal onwards the match descended into a beat down. 10 minutes later he scored again to stretch the margin to five goals, and Mirza Muratovic joined in on the action two minutes on with a goal.

   Muratovic got a brace of his own with 19 minutes to go at 7-0, and Louis D’Arrigo scored two in three minutes to give the hosts a 9-0 lead entering the final ten minutes. With the Rhinos reeling and searching for the final whistle Kai Trewin pushed the lead into double figures after 82 minutes. There was still time for more however, and a five-minute brace from James Fletcher rounded out the damage as the clock ticked towards the end.

Monaro Panthers 0 def. by Belconnen United 6 (Jason Ugrinic 31’, 42’, Goran Mukevski 45+1’, Leo Mazis 59’, 63’, 64’)

Belconnen United tightened their grip on a top-two finals spot with a thumping win over Monaro Panthers at Googong on Saturday. 

  With both sides battling the wind it was a tough start, but Belconnen took the upper hand as Nathan Alferink was forced into an early save. Monaro kept themselves in it, but were undone on the half-hour mark by a handball in the box. Jason Ugrinic took the spot-kick but Alferink saved well, only for Ugrinic to pounce on the rebound and put his side a goal up anyway.

   Ugrinic had his second just over ten minutes later as he got on the end of a good cross to beat Alferink with a looping header. As it looked like the visitors would take a two goal advantage into the break Goran Mukevski struck right on the interval, making the most of a lapse in concentration from the defense to send United in 3-0 up.

   The second half opened up in largely the same fashion as it was all United, but it quickly turned into the Leo Mazis show as the youngster took over. Mazis got his first goal on the board 14 minutes into the half with a nice finish, before he completed a quick-fire hat-trick with two goals in two minutes shortly after to push the lead out to six goals in the blink of an eye.

United continued to push for more goals but were unable to finish, with the score line finishing 6-0 and leaving   Monaro winless still on the season. 

Tuggeranong United 4 (Fernando Jorquera 21’, 48’, Cam Doherty 52’, Aisosa Ihegie 66’) def. Woden-Weston 1 (Dean Tomeski 44’)

Tuggeranong United kept their finals hopes alive heading into the final two rounds with a convincing 4-1 win over Woden-Weston at Greenway on Saturday night.

Full report here.

Gungahlin United 3 (Anthony Giorgi 29’, 79’, Michael Rinaudo 50’) drew. Canberra Olympic 3 (Stephen Domenici 64’, 82’, 88’)

   A stunning comeback from Canberra Olympic inspired by Stephen Domenici’s hat-trick saw them snatch a 3-3 draw with Gungahlin United at GEO on Sunday afternoon. 

Olympic got off to the wrong start as Tim Bobolas was subbed off after just two minutes with an injury, and their afternoon didn’t take long to get worse as Phil Yarnold felled Jack Green in the box. Anthony Giorgi stepped up to the plate and comfortably converted to give his side a much-wanted lead just on the half-hour mark.

Both sides pushed to find the next goal but to no avail, and went into the break with the hosts holding onto their one-goal advantage. The second half continued in much the same way, but United struck first to double their advantage; a long ball from the back finding Michael Rinaudo in behind Olympic’s defence and he finished truly to put his side up 2-0.

  The visitors began to work their way back into the match and had a number of chances, and Domenici grabbed his first as he finished off a lovely team passing move to halve the deficit. Jeremy Habtemariam had a penalty waved away not long after only to see the hosts awarded one up the other end, and once more Giorgi converted easily to complete his brace and stretch the lead to two goals once more with 11 minutes to play.

   Domenici gave Olympic a glimmer of hope with eight minutes to go as he scored his second, and with two minutes to go Habtemariam was set free by Tom McLachlan behind the defence only to be brought down by Green inside the area.

   Domenici converted to complete his hat-trick and grab Olympic a share of the points despite a frantic final minutes that saw Jason Denham make some crucial saves to keep out the visitors.

Tigers FC 1 (Daniel Barac 42’) def. by Canberra FC 5 (Aidan Brunskill 22’, Julian Borgna 26’, 86’, 90+’, Kofi Danning 49’) Canberra FC staked a firm claim to a finals spot while leaving Tigers’ chances on a knife edge, after Julian Borgna’s hat-trick against his former side helped them to a 5-1 win in Cooma. 

  A hard-fought opening gave both sides an idea of what the game would be like, but it was the visitors who broke it open as Aidan Brunskill scored a rare goal after 22 minutes to give his side the lead.

  It took only four more minutes for Canberra FC to double their advantage, and it was Borgna who seemingly inevitably scored against his old side to double the advantage after just 26 minutes. Tigers got back into the game just before the break though as Daniel Barac scored to halve the deficit and give the hosts a fighting chance at a result.

  However, they were on the back foot again almost immediately after the break as Kofi Danning burst through to score and push the lead back out to two goals. The game evened out after that as Tigers looked to find their way back into a crucial match, while the visitors sat back content to hold onto their advantage.

  It looked as though the match would finish at the same score line but Borgna had other ideas, scoring a quick fire brace inside the last few minutes of regulation and injury time to stretch the score out to 5-1.