Under 15s

THE Margaret River Raiders travelled to Busselton for the clash for the league Premiership, knowing that this would be a difficult assignment without winger Aaron Locke and with several players not at their full strengths.

From the onset, Vasse looked the more confident team.

The game was marked by uncharacteristic slip-ups by the Margaret River defence and keeper, and gale force winds.

The visitors from Margaret River tried to put pressure onto Vasse’s backline, to little effect.

Mehdi Balkhi broke through as did Benjamin Smith, but it was Vasse that capitalised on a defensive blunder by the Raiders in the 14th minute.

Two minutes later, Vasse hit the crossbar followed by a near second goal.

Cade Thompson in the Raiders goal struggled with the unsettling weather conditions, but with luck, remedied his erroneous action on the line.

The Raiders’ defence increasingly struggled with the waves of Vasse’s attacks.

Kane Duggan played a great game winning most direct encounters as right back.

Cade Thompson showed two fantastic saves just before half time.

However, it took Vasse a distance kick 30 seconds into the second half to increase the lead.

Playing over the right flank and using the power of the wind, Vasse overwhelmed the Margaret River defence and keeper a third time in the 46th minute with another unpredictable and bouncy distance shot.

The Raiders reverted to individualised actions with Vasse strongly dominating this period of the game.

Vasse capitalised again in the 56th and 68th minute to put the game beyond doubt.

Mehdi Balkhi had a rare shot on goals towards the end of the game.

Then Benjamin Smith had to withdraw with a foot injury.

In the 69th minute Mehdi was brought down in front of Vasse’s goal.

He took the resulting penalty shot and scored the deserved consolation goal.

Vasse however made matters worse for the visitors with a sixth goal in the 71st minute.

Vasse were clearly the deserving winners with a shot on goal difference of 30 to 15.

The player of the match award for Margaret River went to Kane Duggan for a superb performance in the Raiders’ defence.