RICK DREWER

KAPUNDA stunned Tanunda in the Barossa, Light & Gawler reserves football qualifying final by four points on Saturday afternoon at Willaston Oval.
Having won the toss, Kapunda failed to make use of the strong breeze, only edging ahead of the Magpies by two points at the first change, courtesy of a clever soccer goal from Bailey Jones inside the goal square in the last minute of the term.
It was a scrappy, congested quarter with Tanunda showing better method.
Skipper Tom Smith, Josh Clasohm and Will Mudge were prominent early for the Pies, while for the Bombers it was Tyson Barnes, Trae Gant and Chris Smith showing the way.
Kapunda playing-coach Brodie Cox, at the first break, was pleased with the way they “had worked their way into the game, with a nice finish”.
The second term belonged to Tanunda, which opened up a seemingly winning lead of 32 points at the long interval.
The Magpies dominated the quarter with five goals from Bailey Feltus, Ryan Jarvis, Fraser Smith, Pat Mudge and Parker Nelder, while the Bombers could only manage two points.
Tanunda coach Leigh Underwood was “happy with the set-up and it was a good response” and instructed his players “not to go back into our shells, and pressure, pressure”.
Alas, Tanunda was destined not to trouble the scorers again for the entire second half of the match.
The only similarity between the Bombers’ first half and second half was the colours of their jumpers.
They responded magnificently to the situation, gradually working their way back into the game.
They stood up, applied pressure, improved their ball-handling and disposal skills, whittling the Tanunda lead back to 10 points at the final changeover, which could have been less but for some wayward kicking, only converting two goals from eight shots.
Chris Smith was inspirational, with assistance from Josh Slater, Sam Pratt, Sam McKinnon and David Hall.
Despite heading into the breeze, the Bombers were amazingly strong throughout the last quarter, relentless with fierce tackling and denying Tanunda any time or space when they had the ball.
Jones provided the initial stimulus for Kapunda, nailing his second soccer goal three minutes in, after being on the end of a long ball from Josh Slater, to reduce the deficit to four points.
Then, at the 10-minute mark, Andrew May marked strongly in the goal square and kicked truly to give the Bombers the lead.
For the remainder of the term, Kapunda was prepared to play ugly, drying up any chance of Tanunda hitting the scoreboard.
Cox was delighted with his Bombers after the siren.
“It’s a good win, keep a lid on it – that’s what our footy’s all about to come back from that,” he said.
Tanunda will take on Gawler Central in Sunday’s first semi-final, while Kapunda plays Angaston on Saturday for a spot in the grand final.