DESPITE missing a handful of matches throughout the Western Premier League that wasn't going to be enough to prevent Panorama FC's strike threat Jacob Soetens from finishing at the top of the goal scorers list for 2021.
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With the season coming to an early close one week out from the finals, due to the current COVID-19 lockdown, Soetens' haul of 10 goals took him to the top of the list.
The Panorama forward rack up a streak of goals over the last month of games to get his way to the top of the list, while helping the Goats make a late push for a finals position.
Playing in the WPL wasn't even on Soetens' radar earlier in the season but after filling in for several games he showed why he's a major problem for any defensive line to handle.
"It feels really good, especially considering that I'd missed a couple of games as well," Soetens said.
"I was wondering if I was going to get there but over the last four to five games I scored across all those matches.
"At the start of the season I was just planning to play first grade but the guys were short on numbers a few times so I was filling in where they needed me and I just ended up joining permanently.
"There was only five games where you could keep filling in before you were forced to step up for the rest of the year and I ended up approaching that pretty early. I was playing alright so I thought I'd take the step up."
Though priority one was naturally getting Panorama into a finals series, Soetens always knew that he was close to the individual honour.
"I think it was around midway in the season that I saw a post about the top goalscorers and I was in equal second, though from what I counted they'd missed one of my goals so that made me want to get it even more," he said.
"The biggest thing for us in the year was trying to get the same 11 on the park, which was always hard because of injuries and work. It took until the last couple of months before we got our best team on the park.
"We were starting to play some of our best football towards the end so to not get the chance to play the last game was a bit annoying but we still had a long way to go."
Soetens was initially used at times in a wing back role that required him to be up and down both ends of the field frequently.
When he was moved to a higher position up the field that's when his run of goals began.
"Initially Ossie had me playing between striker and left wing, and whenever I was playing on the wing I was playing more of a defensive role," he said, referring to coach Brent Osborne's tactical play.
"Towards the end, when we really needed results, he had me out wide but in a higher position and that really helped accelerate my goal scoring.
"When our front three and our midfield were able to link up we looked really good in patches there. If we had a bit more time together then we would have looked even better."
Orana Spurs finished at the top of the table and were ahead by two points ahead of Waratahs FC when the competition came to an early conclusion.
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