Easts and Slacks Creek hosted games against loftier opponents on Friday night, with both hoping to spring an upset. At Usher Park, the Lions jumped well and led 10-0 after as many minutes against Centenary, but the Panthers then put down the accelerator and ended up racing away to win 56-10. Similarly the Tigers started well against the Magpies and skipped away to a 12-0 lead. Unfortunately mistakes in their own half were to prove critical and let Souths back into the game, and a half time lead. Souths managed to hold the Tigers at bay for the rest of the match to win 30-22.
In the early Sunday game, Redlands travelled to Logan Bros to avenge their first round defeat. The game was tight for the first 20 minutes, with Redlands holding a 12-10 lead, but two tries to the defending premiers just before half-time proved critical. There was to be no repeat of last week's comeback against Arana, and Redlands went away to win 44-16.
The final game of the way saw an injury-decimated Arana team travel to Dolphin Oval, knowing nothing short of a win would retain their competition lead. They came up against a Redcliffe team desperate to maintain their hold on equal 5th position. Arana started well, and had territorial advantage, but great Redcliffe defence held them at bay, and after ten minutes, Redcliffe took advantage of a rare trip to the other end of the fiel to open the scoring with an unconverted try. The next fifteen minutes saw the Panthers launch a number of attacking raids only to be repelled by the Dolphins, and growing in confidence, the Redcliffe side eventually went further ahead with a converted try to lead 10-0. Right on half-time Alex T broke away for a great 70 metre try, and Luke's conversion from near the sideline saw the the deficit back to four at the break. Redcliffe had a dream start to the second half, when on the back of the penalty they scored again with Arana having touched the ball. The remainder of the game saw Arana desperately trying to breach the Redcliffe defence to no avail, and eventually right on full-time Redcliffe crossed again to bring up the final scoreline of 20-6. Special mention must go to the six Arana forwards who had to play the whole game in the warm condition, particularly Matt with 31 tackles and 14 hit-ups, Brent (22/8) and Zac (21/9)
By the minute:
10th: Redcliffe try Redcliffe 4-0
25th: Redcliffe try/conv Redcliffe 10-0
29th: Alex T try/Luke conv Redcliffe 10-6 (HT)
32nd: Redcliffe try Redcliffe 14-6
60th: Redcliffe tryconv Redcliffe 20-6 (FT)
The weekend's results see Redlands and Centenary move to equal first on 26 pts with Arana in 3rd on 25 pts, Logan Bros on 23. Souths and Redcliffe remain equal 5th on 19 points. Easts on 10 and Slacks Ck on 4 are now both out of semi-final contention.
Brad T
21/7/2002
