By Peter Stephenson
A mild Friday evening at Esther Park saw the start of Barkerettes’ State 3 East campaign, and the first-ever visit of Collingwood City. Alizah Jones replaced Simone Otto in a youthful starting lineup.
Barkers began on the offensive, but were caught napping after only three minutes when a long shot from Brianne Buckingham gave City an early lead. Five minutes later, City conceded a free-kick well within Kelly Butera’s range, but she hit the ball over. On the quarter hour, City broke quickly and Hannah Robinson executed a good lob from distance to make it 2-0 to the visitors. The balance of play, though, was such that you felt Barkers were down, but not out.
Sure enough, halfway through the half, Barkers’ pressure won a penalty for a push. Captain Butera dispatched the spot kick comfortably to pull Barkers back to 2-1 down and it was game on. The introduction of Amy D’Ortenzio from the bench posed a new challenge for City keeper LeRae Sandy, but one which she met well, making good saves from D’Ortenzio and Rebecca Brown before the break. Half-time: Mooroolbark 1-2 Collingwood City with all to play for.
The second half was mostly one-way traffic as Barkers pummelled City without breaking through. Around the hour mark Barkers created chance after chance. Brown and Jones set up D’Ortenzio, who hit a shot narrowly wide. Then D’Ortenzio turned and shot, forcing a good block from Sandy. Next it was Emily Stokes going on a solo run to shoot past the post. Barkers were winning a lot of corners, but were shooting from too far out to trouble Sandy.
Meanwhile, the clock was ticking down – would Barkers come back? There were only 13 minutes left when, after a brief period of Collingwood pressure, with which the Barkers defence coped well, Stokes again raced away down the right and hit the ball from an acute angle, finally beating Sandy to make it 2-2. Surely now only one team was going to win it?
Seven minutes from time, Barkers won yet another corner on the right. Butera crossed, and the ball fell to Brown, who hit a crisp first-time shot into the net to complete what seemed an inevitable comeback. The game wasn’t over, though – more than once keeper Ashleigh Fraraccio had to be decisive and race off her line to clear, but Barkers saw out the game to grab the points in an exciting start to the season.
Full-time: Mooroolbark 3-2 Collingwood City.
