By Blair Burns
It was a huge weekend for the Casey Cannons Hockey Club as it won five of a total eight matches across the men’s and women’s competitions with an impressive 24 goals scored for, and just six against.
Men’s coach Steve Noney said it was a great start to the season but said the teams wouldn’t be getting too far ahead of themselves as they look towards round two.
“It was a pretty solid weekend, with the results we can definitely see growth within the club, and we have players who want to be there, there’s a nice family feel, and we are really trying to achieve something,” he said.
“We’ve got four men’s teams which is the first time in the club’s history that we’ve got that many, we have moved them up a grade too.”
The Cannons were too strong for Frankston in the Men’s Vic League (MVL) 2 competition as they took home a big win 4-0.
Tristan Chaffey was going to be a handful for his opponents from the outset at the star netted two goals and gave his side a great lead.
Craig Moore’s leadership was strong as the captain led his side to a huge round one victory with Joshua Watson and Bryan Young also getting in on the action.
Casey is now sitting second on the ladder as the team prepares to travel to Wantirna Reserve next week to battle against Knox who will be looking to bounce back this week.
While the MVL 2 Reserves also wanted in on the action as they smashed Frankston 7-0 in a huge round one victory which has them sitting on top of the ladder going into next week’s clash.
Captain Blake Edwards would’ve been very impressed with the way his side performed as the Cannons quickly gained control of the match and didn’t look back.
Harry Coster was the only multiple goal scorer as he found the back of the net twice throughout the game.
“The ones had a good win 4-0, we had a plan and we stuck to it, we are hoping to continue developing and hopefully have another solid season,” Noney said.
“There was a lot of different goal scorers which was great, and we really set it up from the defence and let guys run through and score goals.
“The threes had a good 4-2 win over Monash and have a few young players coming through with good mentors, we are using that as a bit of a development team.”
The fours fell short against Frankston in the Men’s Metro South 2 competition narrowly losing 0-1 by the time the whistle sounded.
“That was a very good and competitive game and I think the goal was scored in the fourth quarter, we are looking forward to the next challenge and not getting ahead of ourselves,” Noney said.
The Casey Cannons women also had a solid start to the season with two of the four sides winning their round one clashes.
The Women’s Vic League (WVL) 1 side fell short to Mornington 1-0 but there wasn’t much in the result as they also had their chances to score an equaliser.
While the Reserves got redemption for the previous result as they smashed Mornington 5-0 in what was a preview of what the team can produce this season.
Skye McDonald and Jenna McLauchlan starred in the victory scoring two goals each and causing their defenders all sorts of problems, while Ebony Williamson scored one.
The Pennant E South East side fell short in a thriller against Toorak East Malvern 3-2 but will definitely take some positives out of the close encounter.
Darcy Hetherington and Aleisha Foot gave the Cannons a chance for victory as they both showed their elite offensive play to score one goal each.
Finally, the Metro 1 South side made it another win for the Cannons to round out a huge start to the season as they won a narrow encounter against Frankston 1-0.
Foot also played in this game and her single was the difference, and was the only goal scored in this even contest.
