NTC stun Olympia with late flurry
NTC 6
Olympia FC 4
Over the past few weeks there have been whispered words about the slow demise of Women’s Football in Tasmania.
In the past the Women’s Summer Cup and Statewide Cup fixture has been lost in between the hysteria and competitiveness of the Men’s game.
Well on Monday there could be no one complaining about Women’s football as it was the highlight of the day.
The NTC came from two goals down twice to outrun an Olympia FC side that looked rather unfit and at times quite lazy.
Both sides didn’t waste any time in testing each other out with warning shots fired from NTC’s Bianca Parker and Olympia’s Bliss Cantrell in the opening minutes.
Needless to say it was no surprise to see a goal reasonably early in the match when Olympia’s Ellie Gavalas put the ball in to the top right hand corner from a difficult angle.
Almost immediately NTC’s Innocent Michael nearly levelled the score forcing a wonderful save from Olympia keeper Shelley Cook.
The game went up another notch after that and a fabulous strike by Rani Cavaretta on the half volley left NTC keeper Margot Johnston stranded and put Olympia up 2-0.
NTC captain Stacie Hutchinson then took it upon herself to lift the side when she blasted a shot from 12 yards past the helpless Cook in goals.
Hutchinson then levelled the scores on the 35th minute mark when a cross from Lucy Johnson fell to her feet and she forced the ball past Cook once again.
The second half was an end to end affair with both sides not able to penetrate each other’s defence.
The introduction by Olympia of Allie Berry in the second half looked to have been the winning move for Olympia as her discipline and decision making bought structure to Olympia’s attack and after goals by Rani Cavaretta and a clever little goal by Bliss Cantrell, Olympia looked to have it sealed with seven minutes to go.
SUMMER CUP
8