Sport
6 May, 2026
Slow start ends in draw
THE Corangamite Lions division one men’s team had a 0-0 draw in the round three Ballarat Soccer Association match on Sunday against Victoria Park.
“It was a slow start, they set up pretty well, their defence was really strong, two very big guys, and they were able to play,” Lions coach Aaron Corrigan said.
“It took our guys probably about 20 minutes before they actually settled in and started playing some ball.”
After that slow start, the Lions had their chances to score at the Ballarat based Victoria Park venue.
“We were under a bit of pressure up to that point, but pretty much after that we dominated the ball and the chances, we just couldn’t score.
“We had probably three really good chances to score, and we didn’t score any of them, Lachlan Rosolin missed two good chances, and Robert Ayimba missed another good chance as well when he hit the crossbar.”
Ezequiel Ripa was rated best player by the Lions coaching staff.
“Their main threat was down his side, but Ezequiel nullified him, he didn’t get a chance to create anything.
“And then going the other way, all our threats came down that side with Ezequiel linking up with Robert Ayimba and Roman Facchini. the three of them were linking well on that side, so we were actually threatening quite a bit down that side, overall he got up and down the wing, defended well and created chances.”
Corrigan said Victoria Park only had one real shot on target.
“Our keeper Jenani Irunga made one good save in the first half, he made a good save from a quick free kick in the first half, tipped it onto the crossbar, that was really the only clear chance they had.”
While not getting the full points, Corrigan was content with the draw.
“With the way the game went, we were sort of disappointed, but with the fixtures when they came out, if you said from the first three games we’d have seven points, I’d be happy with that.
“I wasn’t happy with the draw, but we’ll take it, it’s still a point.
“I’d be confident we’ll take three points off them when they come down here.”
It was a different story in the division one women’s game, with Corangamite defeating Victoria Park 9-0.
Women’s coach Jamie Norton was thrilled with his team’s performance.
“It was probably the first time they played an all-round performance really,” Norton said.
“The defence has made a few mistakes in the last couple of weeks, and they cleaned it up and it really showed in front of them when the pressure sort of just come on.”
Lenise Mantell scored her second hat-trick in two weeks, her goals coming in the 22nd, 29th and 44th minutes.
Lara Graham also scored a hat-trick, with goals in the 12th, 31st and 79th minutes.
Katlin McIntosh scored in the 17th minute, with Andrei O’Connor in the 42nd minute.
A highlight was a late penalty goal scored by goalkeeper Elizabeth Sotak.
“I got told it was taking the mickey a bit, but it’s a credit to Lizzie because we’ve done a lot of penalty shooting at training, and she can really hit a ball.
“She’s done the hard work, she is pretty handy at taking penalties and she nailed it.”
Norton said the Lions had contributors all over the ground.
“Charlotte Clark had never played as a central defender, we had an injury in that role and Charlotte did a fantastic job there.
“Courtney Wells is usually a striker, and she jumped in a defensive mid role and with Lara, Lenise and Andre they sort of went to work pretty hard in there and set everyone else up.”
The division two men’s game saw Victoria Park claim a 4-2 win.
Norton scored in the 14th minute and Matthew Borchers in the 68th minute in the loss.
“We were really short on the weekend, we only had 11 men,” Norton said.
“Our keeper hurt his shoulder, so he was off the ground for about 30 minutes, so we were down to 10 men for that time, and they scored when we were down, apart from that, we were right in the contest, but when we went down to 10 men, it really tired our legs and it hurt us in the contest.”
The under 12 Lions played Forest Rangers at the Camperdown Showgrounds and scored a 4-2 win.
This Sunday the Lions senior teams will all line up against Daylesford and Hepburn United at the Scotts Creek Recreation Reserve, with the under 12s to play the Sebastopol Vikings at Sebastopol.