THE lights were on but it was CSU who shone the brightest on Friday night, the Mungoes producing their best performance since entering the Woodbridge Cup to beat Molong 62-6.
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While CSU had a pair of a wins and a draw before Friday's clash, given it was the first game the be played under lights at the Molong Recreation Ground, the Mungoes were wary of the Bulls.
But Kurt Norton's men rose to the occasion.
"The boys actually played really well, they loved the atmosphere," the CSU coach said.
"It was a really good experience actually, a lot of boys haven't played under lights before, and it was the first time they'd played under their new lights too.
"After the last couple of performances we've put in, it was nice to get back in the winners' circle."
It took just five minutes for the Mungoes to score the opener via playmaker Joe Coady and from that point onwards the university side dominated.
By half-time the score read 32-0 and the points kept coming, winger Lachlan Balcombe crossing three times for the match.
"There was no lacklustre part of the game, everyone was on top of it the whole time," Norton said.
"From pretty much the kick-off we were straight into it. We'd sort of been playing 30 minutes of football or 50 minutes of football over the last couple of weeks, but from the warm up straight into the kick-off for game, everyone really clicked."
Norton was delighted to see how his side built pressure in attack and converted their opportunities, but the coach was even more pleased with the Mungoes' defensive efforts.
"We're a team that can score from anywhere on the park and something that we try and pride ourselves on is defence, but we just really haven't done that the last couple of weeks," he said.
"We've been missing just that discipline and respect for the footy ... but we really really defended well on Friday and that's what set us up for the match.
"We were up by 50 when they scored, so it was more of a consolation try for them really. From the get go everyone wanted to be there and really put in.
"We had a few standouts, Fin Grabham our captain played incredible, Braydan Burke, he's normally a halfback but played at hooker and was nearly our man of the match, and our five-eighth Joe Coady played outstanding."
The victory elevated CSU to fourth on the ladder, evidence the Mungoes are handling the standard of the Woodbridge Cup since making the switch from the Mid West Cup.
Though there is plenty of football still to come, Norton believes that CSU can remain near the top of the ladder if they put in the effort.
"It's sort of been good coming in with no-one talking about you, it meant there wasn't that pressure, but we need to be more consistent and need to get more numbers there at training," he said.
This Saturday at Diggings Oval, Norton is hoping his side can build on what they produced to beat Molong.
CSU will host third played Canowindra - a side that currently has the best defensive record in the competition and won four of eight games.
"I think having that good performance against Molong is hopefully going to set a good platform and a good standard for where we want to be next weekend," Norton said.
"We had a few guys out but they'll be back for Canowindra."
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