St Stanislaus College sealed its first Independent Sporting Association division one title since 2008 on Saturday afternoon, defeating a gallant Kinross side in a game that will go down as one of the great all-time Orange-Bathurst local derbies.
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In a clash that had absolutely zero hallmarks of a first-versus-last fixture the Bathurst school closed out a thrilling 15-12 victory at Kinross Main Oval, but it was far from easy.
With Stannies undefeated and flying high on top of the standings Kinross, with just one win to its name in 2017, wasn’t expected to compete with the Bathurst school.
But it did, and if not for Stannies’ stunning defensive effort the Orange school would have produced the upset of the season.
On the back of countless Stannies errors Kinross enjoyed a mountain of possession and with it territory, particularly in the second half.
After trailing 8-5 at half-time, a gap extended to 15-5 against the run of play midway through the second half, the two blues camped in Stannies’ end and threw wave after wave of attacking raids at the Bathurst school.
Kinross broke Stannies’ wall in the 76th minute to cut the gap to three points, but outside that it couldn’t find a way through as the Bathurst school held on to secure the narrow win and with it the 2017 title.
“Obviously we’re very pleased to get our hands on that trophy (but) we were lucky, that one could’ve gone either way,” Stannies coach Bruno Rossitt said.
“We didn’t play well, but Kinross didn’t let us play well. With the season they’ve had, they played out of their skin and absolutely deserved to be in with the chance to win at the end of that game so full credit to them.”
“That’s the best we’ve ever played,” Kinross skipper Ross Alston said, echoing Rossitt’s sentiments.
“Stannies are one hell of a team, there’s no weak spots in that side, and we went down there earlier in the season and they beat us by 40 so to only go down by three this time is a huge effort, one we’re very proud of.
“Congratulations to Stannies for winning the title, but I think maybe we put a little bit of a dampener on their celebrations with that performance.”
Stannies took an early 5-0 lead after winger Mitchell Pearce went over in the corner, after that it became a real arm wrestle.
Neither side truly gained the upper hand, going toe-to-toe and not giving an inch.
Bryce Rue landed a 38th minute penalty goal to extend Stannies’ lead to 8-0, but just two minutes late Kinross hit back through fullback Lachie Fisher.
Stannies worked hard to gain a three-on-one overlap but a flying Yool Yool dropped a pass cold, Fisher scooping up the loose ball and going 40 metres untouched to score.
Nate Vazouras missed his conversion attempt, leaving the score at 8-5.
For the first 15 minutes of the second half it was all Kinross. They peppered Stannies’ line, but couldn’t break it.
In the only period of the second half when Stannies found any fluency, Orange City junior Hunter Ward barged his way over. Rue converted, extending the lead to 15-5.
Kinross worked their way back into though, once again gaining the upper hand and camping in Stannies’ half.
Five-eighth Craig Simpson charged over in the 76th minute and Vazouras’ conversion cut the gap to three, but Kinross couldn’t find a way through after that.
Kinross were best served by Simpson, his younger brother Preston and Donny Freeman while Ward was simply outstanding for Stannies.
In a side which didn’t play well, Ward’s performance proved exactly why even the best of judges consider him supremely unlucky to have missed out on an Australian Schoolboys spot.
“He was very impressive,” Rossitt said.
“His go-forward is one of those things that kept us in that game.”
Stannies’ last title win was in 2008, Orange Emus aces Mitch Evers and Jack Hart were both a part of that side, as was Bathurst Bulldogs’ Sam Roberson.
- ST STANISLAUS COLLEGE BATHURST 15 (Mitchell Pearce, Hunter Ward tries; Bryce Rue conv, pen goal) def KINROSS WOLAROI SCHOOL 12 (Lachie Fisher, Craig Simpson tries; Nate Vazouras conv)