It would have been their first competition point this season after eight games. It was Girls’ High’s first win of the season and they are four points ahead from seven games.
Marist Thistle enjoyed early territorial advantage but Girls’ High scored first after Marist Thistle conceded a penalty for handball.
Goalkeeper Eden Schollum parried the penalty kick by Jade McVey, but McVey reacted quickly and scored from the rebound.
Marist Thistle replied after Kayla Wilson-Moore went on a run down the wing and crossed the ball into the penalty area. Amy O’Rourke, who had a great game harrying the Girls’ High defence, battled for possession and the ball popped out for Summer Battisti. She made no mistake.
The second Girls’ High goal came from a ball into the box by McVey. In the confusion, a Marist Thistle player got the final touch for an own goal.
Down 2-1 at the break, Marist Thistle continued to hold their own in an even contest. They equalised when a sweetly struck free-kick by Denitza Naydenova found the net by way of a defender’s attempted block.
A penalty for Girls’ High broke the deadlock. Marist Thistle ’keeper Schollum dived the right way, but Lucy McDiarmid’s low spot-kick beat the outstretched glove.
Both sides looked good when they used the width of the pitch and played down the wings.
The job of referee Jack Adams was made easier by the sporting approach of both teams.
In the other women’s game, Campion College beat Bohemians 8-4.
Campion central midfielder Dara Mulrooney and striker Grace Levy scored three goals each, while striker Miah Somerton and right-winger Adrianna Batarrita-Clarke scored one each.
Mulrooney and Levy showed they have a nose for goals. Among the others, left winger-cum-midfielder Aliyah Lardelli and goalkeeper Lily Heuser were in outstanding form.
Campion scored the bulk of their goals in the first half, building a lead that seemed to assure them of victory.
Bohemians never gave up and reduced the leeway in a spirited second-half showing.
Only one senior men’s match was played at the weekend. Most of the pitches were closed, making a full round of men’s games impossible.
Childers Road Reserve No.2 was judged fit for play, though, so the opportunity was taken to stage an Eastern League 1 match that had been abandoned partway through.
Strikers Davie Ure and Alex Shanks each scored a hat-trick as Property Brokers Gisborne Thistle Firsts beat Coates Associates Wainui Demons 9-2.
Two of the goals scored by Shanks were eye-catching. One was a left-foot shot into a top corner of the goal; the other was a headed finish to a move in which he played a prominent part.
Ure’s goals included a 25-metre low-flying missile into a bottom corner.
Ure scored his goals in the fifth, 10th and 52nd minutes. Shanks scored his in the 15th, 35th and 60th.
The others were scored by right-winger-cum-midfielder Lucian Nickerson in the 22nd minute, left-winger Xavier Priestly in the 70th, and striker and late sub Kieran Ryan in the 90th.
Shanks was named Thistle man of the match. Goalkeeper Kaelle Straatman-Whatuira also stood out in a sound team effort.
Demons captain and manager Yannis Kokkosis was away for the day, and his side had a few injury concerns coming into this match.
Regular goalkeeper John Hill is still getting over a shoulder injury, so played as a central defender in front of the sweeper. Clay Parker, who would normally play in goal in Hill’s absence, crushed a finger at work.
Marauding striker Mike Morrissey was confined to goalkeeping duties for all but the last 15 minutes when Mark Harris took over.
Morrissey celebrated his “release” by nodding a bouncing ball over everyone into the Thistle goal for Demons’ second. Striker Kaleb Jacobs had scored earlier.
Midfielder Matt Tong was Demons’ man of the match.
Mark Harris said this would ensure Tong’s presence at the next game, because he would have to return the strip he’d had to wash for winning the man-of-the-match award.
Max Harris (no relation) also played well as a go-anywhere striker.
