In what could be their last game of the season, the High School Cougar Girl’s Football team recorded their first win of the season. Previous games had seen the girls being able to compete with much stronger teams, but fail to get a win.

However, on Wednesday they turned the corner. The weather was perfect and the pitch in top condition, the team delivered an outstanding performance to get that much deserved victory against Seisen girls. Early pressure saw the Cougars spend most of the first 15 minutes in the opposition half, but without really testing the Seisen goalkeeper. That all changed about midway through the first half when inspirational captain, Yurina, put a defence splitting pass through for midfielder Alana to slot home the first goal. The team were not content with sitting on a lead and were hungry for more. Again, pressurising the opposition in their own half, chances kept coming, but it took the persistence, drive and tenacity of striker Amberlee to double the lead. Cougars goalkeeper Kirari, hardly troubled all half, found herself exposed by a break away, and the home team went into the halftime with a 2-1 lead. The second half very much followed the pattern of the first half and saw the Cougars being first to most of the balls and dictating the pace of the game. However, as time progressed, Seisen started to come back into the game. It was therefore very much to everyone’s relief that substitute striker Lea capitalised on a mistake from the Seisen defence. The defender misplaced the ball just inside the 18 yard box, and while Lea still had an incredible amount of work to do, she managed to squeeze the ball over the goalline from a very tight angle. At 3- 1 and with 10 minutes to go, the massive effort that the whole team had put in started to tell. Seisen again managed to get one more goal back, but the Cougars had the grit to hold on, with the game ending in a 3-2 victory for Saint Maur. Credit goes to the whole squad for all playing their part, and for their willingness to work hard for each other. The majority of the team are grade 9s and 10s, and so we look forward to them progressing to an even higher level next season.