Beaten at the death in round one, All Saints, Maitland made sure there was no repeat this time around as they put Hunter Sports to the sword in their NRL Schoolboys Cup clash. Relive the action.
A scintillating four-try first half helped set up the win for the home side, who took a 22-0 lead into the break on the back of some excellent attacking football from halves Ashton Farrell and Jack Thompson.
The victory was not only important in the context of the competition, with both teams now holding a record of one win and one loss, but also in terms of local bragging rights, with a slew of Newcastle Knights junior rep teammates facing off against each other.
It was actually Hunter Sports who had the early running, and the team could have scored two early tries if not for a forward pass and dropped ball.
All Saints duly took advantage of the reprieve, with winger Caden Gothard crossing in the eighth minute after linking well with backrower Isaac Robb.
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The Maitland side maintained the pressure and came up with an incredible 90-metre try in the 20th minute.
Collecting a kick on his own 10-metre line, winger Liam Richardson found fullback Machai Pillidge, who made a break down the right touchline.
Pillidge then passed the ball back on the inside to five-eighth Jack Thompson, who bumped off a defender before finding a flying Farrell, who showed too much speed for the chasing Hunter defenders to score under the sticks to make it 12-0.
The halves certainly weren’t done, with Farrell combining with Gothard for his second and Thompson putting in a nice grubber for lock Flynn Mitchell, who scored on the stroke of halftime to give his side a 22-0 lead at the break.
All Saints continued the pain in the second half, with Mitchell charging through some flimsy defence for his second, while Thompson helped set up winger Richardson with a lovely cut-out ball as the team took a 32-0 lead midway through the second half.
Hunter Sports captain Connor Votano finally got his side on the board with seven minutes remaining after some nice footwork, while replacement Jai Callaghan skipped over three minutes later to reduce the deficit.
However they were merely consolation tries as All Saints ran out comfortable winners, with Braith O’Connor scoring on the bell to put the icing on the cake.
All Saints Maitland 38 (Gothard 2, Mitchell 2, Carroll, Richardson, O’Connor tries; Carroll five goals) def Hunter Sports High 12 (Votano, Callaghan tries; Votano two goals)
PREVIEW
All Saints Maitland will be sweating on the fitness of impressive backline duo Fletcher Thompson and Machai Pillidge ahead of their Peter Mulholland Cup clash with Hunter Sports High on Wednesday.
It is the annual battle for the Hunter, a Schoolboys Cup derby that always brings the best out in both sides.
The clash will be exclusively live streamed on KommunityTV and The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, kicking off at 11am. See the full Round 2 schedule below.
After losing in cruel circumstances in the dying stages of their round one clash against Central Coast Sports College, All Saints are expected to come out firing.
Thompson is on the verge of making his return to the Schoolboys Cup for the first time this season having battled a quadriceps injury coming out of the NSWRL junior season.
The fullback is expected to be put through his paces in a final training session on Tuesday alongside Pillidge, who also missed the Round 1 clash with Central Coast.
Both players would add plenty of attacking spark to a backline which had plenty of opportunities to close out the first round loss.
“They are probably both fighting for that fullback position along with incumbent Caden (Gothard),” All Saints College’s Nathan Koen said.
“(Caden) came back with some really strong defensive efforts late in that game after making a couple of early mistakes. He had a great try-saver right under the posts.
“We were extremely disappointed to lose that game. There was a period of madness there where we couldn’t keep hold of the ball and let them back into the game.
“I think we were the better team, I thought our front rowers were outstanding.”
Hunter Sports High will roll into the derby clash with plenty of momentum after upsetting Farrer MAHS in Tamworth last week.
Hunter controlled their emotions for the tough road trip, with impressive fullback Connor Votano pulling the strings in a 14-12 win.
Koen said the All Saints side had identified Votano as the major threat in the Hunter Sports High side and would be pulling out all the stops to limit his opportunities to impact the contest.
TEAM LISTS
All Saints Maitland
1. Machai Pillidge, 2. Caden Gothard, 3. Darcy Jones, 4. Fletcher Thompson, 5. Liam Richardson, 6. Jack Thompson, 7. Ashton Farrell, 8. Jack Hilliar, 9. Tristan Head, 10. Cody Hopwood, 11. Isaac Robb, 12. Lucas Hickling, 13. Flynn Mitchell, 14. Jackson Saville, 15. Braith O’Connor, 16. Vince Campbell, 17. Laird Young, 18. Lachlan Hickson, 19. Fletcher Anlezark, 20. Flynn Kennedy
Hunter Sports High
1. Connor Votano, 2. Ralph Binge, 3. Max Fines, 4. Demiah Ainuu, 5. Patrick Slade, 6. Kyran Blair, 7. Kyle McDermott, 18. Royden Taape, 9. Taimana Elers, 10. Madden Potts, 11. Benji Keene-O’Keefe, 12. Rylee Moses-Kincaid, 13. Jakob Bacon, 14. Jai Callaghan, 15. Charles Barnes, 16. Ian Beale, 17. Tyler Jarvis, 18. Lorenzo Godoy