The Dunedin City Royals put five goals past Universities of Canterbury to notch an impressive win on Saturday.
Building from last week’s draw with high-flyers Christchurch United, the Royals beat UC 5-0 in the men’s Southern League at Logan Park on Saturday.
The Royals took a seventh-minute lead when they smartly passed the ball around the UC defence allowing Will Turner to score.
Midway through the first half Brady Jacobs jinked into the penalty box and struck his shot against the post.
The Royals were enjoying a host of possession and keeper Alex Boomer had little to do.
As halftime approached Max Davidson was denied a goal when his powerful header was spectacularly saved by Matthew Aitchison.
It was 2-0 soon after the restart when Charlie Fawcett scored in the 47th minute. Turner made it 3-0 just before the hour mark.
Coach Blair Scoullar was happy to have a strong bench. He introduced Cato Williams and Lewis Wall — both of whom got on the scoresheet in the 70th and 77th minutes to round out a well-deserved victory.
The top of the table clash between Cashmere Tech and Christchurch United finished 2-2, meaning if Coastal Spirit can win Sunday’s clash over Ferrymead Bays, Spirit will go top of the table.
Selwyn remain rooted to the bottom of the table after losing 6-2 to Nomads.
Wānaka did not play as their game over Nelson Suburbs was postponed, as Suburbs were in the Chatham Cup cup semifinal where they lost 3-0 to Auckland United.
In the women’s South Island league Roslyn Wakari was the only southern team in action.
They took a lead through Morgan McCormick in the 22nd minute against Coastal Spirit at Logan Park.
However, Margi Dias and Samantha Whyte both bagged doubles to give Coastal a 4-1 win.
In the ODT Men’s Southern Premiership, Northern continued on its quest for a 100% season with an emphatic 7-0 victory on the road against Northern Hearts.
Sam Cosgrove opened the scoring after five minutes, before Rory Hibbert scored a 16-minute hat-trick to lead 4-0 after 40 minutes.
While doing so, he took his personal tally to 21 goals for the season.
Toby Orchiston made it 5-0 midway through the second half and Cosgrove bagged two late goals to get his first hat-trick of the season.
Mosgiel retained second spot beating the Dunedin City Royals 4-0, Queens Park claimed local bragging rights in the Invercargill derby beating Old Boys 4-0, while Roslyn Wakari overcame Green Island 2-1 at Sunnyvale thanks to a double from Ben Williams-Davies.
In the Women’s Southern Premiership, Green Island moved clear at the top of the table beating Northern 2-0 with Hannah Post and Jonna Barth’s goals.
University and the Dunedin City Royals played out a 0-0 draw to leave them both three points behind Green Island — however both teams have games in hand.
Queens Park came from behind to beat Roslyn with Tyler Andrews scoring her second goal in the 87th minute, before Megan Waters injury time goal secured a 3-1 win for the Invercargill team.
— Neville Watson
