BEN McAlpine's pressure sideline conversion after the final siren helped Orange CYMS to a thrilling 13-12 victory over Orange Hawks in the final of the Bathurst Panthers Knokckout on Saturday afternoon.
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It looked as if Hawks, who had beaten Cowra 16-0 to qualify for the decider at Carrington Park, had a firm grip on the trophy after taking a five-point lead with just over four minutes to go.
But CYMS did not surrender and that perseverance paid off.
With 75 seconds to go CYMS winger Hayden Spencer dived over in the left corner, but the pass which helped him across the stripe was ruled forward.
Then, with 22 seconds left, Hawks fullback Steve Widders knocked on and CYMS custodian Lachie Munro pounced on the loose ball.
It was spread left into the arms of Joe Lasagivbau as the siren sounded, and with room to move plus a huge smile on his face, the winger charged over the line to make it 12-11.
McAlpine then guided his conversion attempt between the sticks, triggering scenes of jubilation from his team-mates.
"You never know with Piney, sometimes he's on and sometimes he's off, I was just hoping. It was great, he iced it, I think he's one of those guys that performs better under pressure," CYMS captain-coach Daniel Mortimer said.
"That was a tough game, but the boys never gave up and it makes that stuff really rewarding.
"You never say never, I think we won and lost that about four times. That's the beauty of footy, you don't know until the end. To score in the corner off that last play, that was awesome."
The win over Hawks followed on from a 10-4 victory against Group 10's defending premiers Bathurst Panthers on Friday night and another 10-4 result against St Pat's in Saturday's semi-final.
It was a good way for Mortimer to start his tenure with CYMS.
"It's a pre-season knockout, you don't read too much into it and we won't and I'm sure we'll have many more tough tussles with the sides we played," he said.
"But look, we versed three really tough sides and we fought hard, some things went our way, some things didn't, but we were there fighting in the end."
The opening minutes of the final belonged to Hawks as CYMS twice gifted them good field possession for striping the ball late in the tackle count.
Hawks punished their fierce rivals for doing so on the second occasion as halfback Jake Blimka dived over. Willie Heta added the extras to make it 6-0.
While ahead, Hawks did not learn from CYMS' mistakes. They too were penalised for raking out the ball then had the mark advanced after back-chatting.
Though CYMS did not score off the resulting set, it triggered a momentum shift. While Hawks managed to hold them out for a number of sets, 15 seconds out from the break Ryan Griffin dived over from dummy-half and McAlpine's conversion locked things up.
In the second period both sides enjoyed periods of dominance as the arm-wrestle continued.
A Mortimer field goal gave CYMS the lead with just over 11 minutes left, then rival captain-coach Heta put Hawks back in front. He shaped to pass but instead went himself and with the conversion Hawks led 12-7.
When the kick-off came there were three minutes left, but there was plenty of drama to come.
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Hawks knocked-on from that kick-off before the ball trickled into touch, which put CYMS back on the attack. From there the green and golds got the job done.
"It was pretty gut-wrenching to go down like that in the last second because I thought we had it - it was just one of those games, footy is footy," Widders said.
"We knew something little like a dropped ball could cost you and went down to the wire, it was pretty disappointing not to win.
"But it was pretty good for our first hit-out, I think our fitness was a bit below-par, but we'll work on that over the next couple of months."
