LMR SOCCER

This week the St Mary MacKillop College Senior Boys Soccer team played in the Loddon Mallee Region finals in Bendigo on Monday 20th May, 2024.

Despite a very crisp 6:30am boarding time, the boys were very enthusiastic about the day.

Our first game was against a very technical Mildura Secondary School. In previous years Mildura has been the team to beat and this match was no exception. Alex Olandezos nearly kicked a goal in the first few minutes but was thwarted by their keeper. For the rest of the game, the boys were kept busy in defense with the final score 10-0.

The second match against St Mary of the Angels was much closer and there was a genuine sense amongst the team that they could win. After a scoreless first half, the team was able to finally hit the back of the net not once but twice, thanks to Alex Olandezos and Koby McMillian. I should mention Koby has no prior experience playing the round ball game but his AFL expertise showed. The final scores were 6-2.

The third and final match saw us squared off with a very determined Bendigo side who were out to score as many goals as they could to go through to the next stage on aggregate. The final score was 21-1. Sonny Tucker was a man on a mission in the middle and despite several attempts, finally managed to score a well-deserved goal in the dying seconds to put some pride on the scoreboard.

Despite the big losses the boys played very well. We were several key players down and unlike the other teams, we only had eleven players with no substitutes. We also had three AFL players who willingly filled in to help out. Thank you to John Eade, Sam Miller, and Koby McMillan who were hard working all day.

Bailey Johnson played a great Captain’s game in all three matches and was well supported by his Swan Hill Youth Soccer team members, Sonny Tucker, Alex Olandezos, Mustafa Aslam, Sean Adams, Paul Tran, William Olandezos, and Iliya Hussain Zadah.

We also thank Swan Hill Youth 18s Coach Rob Johnson who assisted with the lines and gave some much-needed advice to our AFL players in the back line. Thank you to our Student Extracurricular Activities Coordinator Grace Scott, who always goes above and beyond in her duties.