Pearcedale young gun Cruiz West filled his boots against Karingal on the weekend booting a season-high 10 goals to lead the Dales to a huge 145-point victory.
West has been impressive throughout the season and while he may have started as a Brett Eddy understudy, he has grown into an unstoppable force as he continues to trouble opposition defenders.
The young forward leads the league goalkicking leaderboard with 35 across eight games, while Eddy is closely behind with 34.
The Bulls are the only team yet to win a game in the Mornington Peninsula Division 2 competition this season, slumping to 0-8.
But on the other hand, the Dales head into the bye weekend with a season record of 7-1, as well as an impressive percentage of 159 which was boosted again by the huge win.
Karingal was next to no chance of causing an upset, as Pearcedale quickly took control of the match, even without ex-AFL player Ryan Bastinac who was away.
The quarter time margin had already blown out to 45 points as Pearcedale kicked 8.5 to open proceedings.
But it was the second quarter where the formidable Dales really put the Bulls to the sword, as they kicked 9.3 to turn the lead into 88 points at the main break.
The game was well and truly over but coach Peter Bastinac and his players weren’t stopping there as they tried to lift their percentage as much as possible.
Pearcedale continued to kick away in the second half and extended the margin to 145 points at the final siren for its biggest win of the season.
It was the seventh time the Dales have sung the song after the game, with a minor blemish this season coming against Frankston Bombers back in Round 5 where they went down by 36 points.
However, they trailed by just eight points at three quarter time that day and it was injuries and the lack of rotations which hurt them in the fourth term.
It will be interesting to see how Pearcedale goes when it takes on Frankston Bombers for a second time later in the season,
The Dales have been impressive this season and while they were beaten comfortably by Frankston Bombers, they had just one scoring shot less.
Not only has Pearcedale had a really tough draw across the first couple of months, but the team has also been ravaged by injury, expecting to welcome back five players after the bye.
Bastinac said it was a pleasing result and was glad that the team kicked well in front of goal and really capitalised on its dominance.
“We prepared for a good game and spoke about defending well firstly, and then capitalising when we go forward and we did that, so it was a good result,” he said.
“We put ourselves in a good position to gain some percentage which we really needed, we were certainly striving for some good percentage if we had the opportunity, and we were lucky that we capitalised.”
West’s 10 goal performance didn’t come as a surprise to the coach who knows what the young star is capable of.
“He had a day out that’s for sure, he was well looked after and had some really good supply from our mids,” Bastinac said.
“Mitch Davis was really good; he plays a selfless role every week and it was good to see him get amongst the goals yesterday.
“I also thought Will Dalgleish had his best game of the year, he was really composed and used the ball well.”
Minus the one game against Frankston Bombers, the Dales have been on song with their goal kicking, converting on most opportunities to apply great scoreboard pressure.
“The reason we kicked straight was our good ground position when we went forward, we were kicking from almost directly in front most of the time, our transition was really good,” Bastinac said.
“We came out of the game unscathed which is a positive for us because we have had a wretched run lately.
“The bye has come at a good time for a lot of players … we should get possibly six players back after the bye which will strengthen us again.”
Premierships aren’t won in June but the Dales will be daring to dream as they approach the second half of the season.
After an elimination final exit last year and a premiership hiatus of more than 20 years, the pass-mark for Pearcedale this year is the big dance and they have taken big strides towards their goal with a 7-1 start to the season.
And there were more positives than negatives to take out of the one loss they had against the Bombers, with Bastinac proud of the effort and never-give-in attitude that the side displayed.
“We’ve had a really difficult draw in the first part of the year and I think we have played everyone in the top five,” he said.
“We have also only had three home games in the first nine rounds which we have handled well, we are looking forward to the run home.”
Ryan Bastinac, Alex Dimic, as well as brothers Archie and Jack McGuinness are all expected to return for the clash against Bonbeach on June 14.
In other games across the MPFNL Division 2 competition, Devon Meadows dropped its second game in a row as Chelsea was too strong, winning by 13 points.
The Panthers led at every break but were run over the top of in the final quarter as the Seagulls swooped in for a reward, in the form of four points.
Both teams were inaccurate in front of goal with a combined 14.23 kicked in the game.
The only players to score multiple goals were Chelsea pair Chaise Jordan and John Simson (two goals each), whereas the other 10 goals scored in the match were to individual players.
Devon Meadows will need to bounce back after the break against Crib Point who are also 5-3 this season, as the clash shapes up to be a genuine eight-point game.
Frankston Bombers maintained its spot on top of the ladder along with its undefeated status as it smashed Seaford by 100 points.
The Tigers actually kicked the first goal of the game and had a lead of 7-0, but that was short lived as the Bombers soon added six goals, keeping Seaford to just one goal after quarter time.
There were plenty of contributors inside 50 for Frankston headlined by Tyson Barry (six goals), as Jai Block, Jarrad Grant and Khan Haretuku all kicked three goals each.
Crib Point was too strong for Tyabb as the Magpies flew away to win by 66 points after an even battle in the first quarter.
Daniel Farmer (six goals) and Archie Shepherd (three goals) led the way in the victory, while Yabbies forward Matthew Clark kicked four goals in the loss.
Some sharp shooting from Rye helped the side to a 68-point win over Hastings, which was coming off its first win of the season.
The Demons kicked 21.7 as Brady Egan kicked six majors and was named best on, brother of GWS star Toby Greene, Edward was also in fine form with six goals.
Somerville caused an upset over Bonbeach to win by nine points in a true arm wrestle, which saw just nine goals scored for the entire match.
The Eagles’ winning score was 5.17, while the Sharks managed 4.14 on a day where the ball seemed to be repelled from the middle of the big sticks.
Dimitri Fasoulis did his best for Bonbeach with a couple of goals, but Mitch Mantell dominated for Somerville to get the side over the line for just its third win of the season.
The Mornington Peninsula Division 2 competition will have the week off and resume the following, however, Division 1 still plays two matches over the weekend.
MPFNL DIVISION 2
KARINGAL 1.2 3.4 4.4 5.8(38)
PEARCEDALE 8.5 17.8 22.12 28.15(183)
Karingal Goals: Zachery Holton 2, Jason Bedford, Oscar Hanson, Harry Park.
Best: Jack Smith, Oscar Hanson, Louis Barbour, Zachery Holton, Noah Bailey.
Pearcedale Goals: Cruiz West 10, Brett Eddy 5, Mitch Davis 4, Declan Albert 3, Luke Daniel, Luke Jennings 2, Jordan Bastinac, Will Dalgleish.
Best: Cruiz West, Jake Frawley, Will Dalgleish, Mitch Davis, Huw Jones.
DEVON MEADOWS 2.1 5.5 5.7 6.11(47)
CHELSEA 1.3 2.5 3.9 8.12(60)
Devon Meadows Goals: Nathan Drew, Joel Hillis, Bailey Phillips, Cody Ray, Jack Wilson.
Best: Arnold Kirby, Jack Wilson, Liam Drew, Rory Hillis, Joel Hillis.
Chelsea Goals: Chaise Jordan, John Simson 2, Anthony Beale, Zane Carter, Jesse Davies, Sam Simpson.
Best: John Simson, Jordan Kelly, Matthew Dussain, Zane Carter, Sam Simpson.
