Shepparton's Hannah Crawley showed her experience and quality in the victory.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Shepparton kept its Goulburn Valley League A-Grade finals hopes alive with a crushing 72-23 victory over Benalla at Deakin Reserve.
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The Bears entered their round 16 split-round encounter on August 1 needing a win to remain in touch with the top six and delivered emphatically, overwhelming the Saints by 49 goals.
Benalla offered plenty of resistance during a competitive opening term, scoring the first two goals of the match through Nikita Hanson before Shepparton settled into its work.
Ruby Higgins quickly found her range and helped the Bears overturn the early deficit, while Kimberly Borger also made an impact inside the attacking circle as the home side established an 11-8 quarter-time lead.
However, any prospect of a close contest quickly disappeared during a dominant second term from Shepparton.
The Bears piled on 23 goals while restricting Benalla to eight, with Higgins and Borger repeatedly capitalising on the steady supply coming into the circle.
Shepparton produced a run of eight consecutive goals during the quarter to stretch its advantage from 16-10 to 24-10, taking a commanding 34-16 lead into the main break.
The margin continued to balloon after half-time as the Bears maintained their defensive pressure and attacking efficiency.
Turner made an immediate impression in the third period, scoring twice in quick succession as the Bears won the quarter 23-5 and carried a 57-21 advantage into the final change.
Shepparton did not take its foot off the accelerator in the fourth, with Turner assuming the bulk of the shooting duties and pouring in 15 goals for the term.
The Bears finished with another extended scoring run on their way to a 15-2 final quarter and a comprehensive 72-23 triumph.
Higgins led all scorers with 41 goals from four quarters, while Turner finished with 18 from two periods and Borger contributed 13 across her two quarters.
Heidi O’Halloran scored 14 goals for Benalla, with Hanson adding nine.
The victory moved Shepparton to an 8-8 record and 32 points, level with fifth-placed Tatura and sixth-placed Mansfield but sitting seventh on percentage as the race for the final two finals positions remains tight.
“We’d like to hope that something is coming together for us,” Shepparton stalwart Hannah Crawley reflected.
“Our season has been riddled with injuries, we only really had our team back last week and still had one out so it’s been hard to get that connection this year.
“Hopefully in these last couple of games, it can come together - it’s a group effort.
“Today, our coach left at half-time and things like that, so it’s been a club effort this year with injuries.
“We’re a close knit unit at his club and we had the B-Grade coaches who were able to coach us for the second half (of the game) today - they usually train us but everyone stepped up.
“I think today was a good sign of getting that spark and connection back, I feel as a leader my job is to build up the young kids, they all did a good job which is great for their confidence moving forward.”
Elsewhere in the split round, Shepparton United closed out a 53-46 victory over Tatura, while Echuca triumphed in a 44-34 win against Seymour.
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