Rick Drewer
WITH the sun shining and clear blue skies, the Kapunda Bombers celebrated ‘Sponsors Day’ by hosting the Angaston Panthers, at Dutton Park, on a perfect day for football.
Winning the toss and heading towards the race-track end, Angaston jumped out of the blocks immediately, posting three goals in the opening 11 minutes with two to Alex Reinke and one to Ryder Eberhard – the latter courtesy of a great pass from Jayden Antonie.
The Bombers barely had a sniff, and then the pendulum swung.
Kapunda found the ball and it was its turn to dominate the remainder of the quarter, with Fraser Evans, Ash Bruce and Brodie Borg all contributing, while the magician Justin Zanandrea complimented their efforts by snagging two goals to bring the Bombers back to only a five-point deficit at the first interval.
The second quarter was a classic arm-wrestle, with Zanandrea reading the ball off Max Neville’s hand to collect and snap accurately for his third major early, before an immediate reply from the Panthers’ Eberhard collecting his second.
Zanandrea, halfway through the term, gathered a pass from player-coach Evans to snap his fourth goal, and the Bombers grabbed the lead for the first time.
Hayden Robinson, on the end of another fine pass from Evans, marked strongly and converted to extend the Kapunda lead to seven points.
Then it was Ango’s turn, with brilliant late snap goals from both Scott Lewis and Tom Jackaman saw the Panthers snatch back their own five-point lead at the long break.
Angaston set-up, and essentially won the match in the third term.
After Josh Dodd goaled and momentarily re-gathered the lead for Kapunda at the three-minute mark, the Panthers dominated the remainder of the quarter, scoring 5.6 while the Bombers were held scoreless.
The 11 scoring shots accurately reflected the Panthers’ complete control.
Reincke and Eberhard were focal points up-front, Steve Summerton collected plenty of ball, while Jack Miles, Harry Clarkson and Tom Ryan provided the springboard.
It threatened to be a complete blow-out with Angaston stretching its lead to a massive 35-points at the final changeover.
Without the efforts of Evans, Conor White, Bruce and Rosenzweig the Bombers may have been further behind.
But just as it looked like ‘game over’, the pendulum swung again.
Four minutes into the final term, off-hands, Zanandrea gathered and snapped truly, before some great work out of the centre from Joel Worsfold provided the opportunity for Fraser Smith to goal moments later.
Aaron Whistler just missed, before a free-kick to Josh Robinson converted from 15-metres, and then a long handball from Worsfold found Fraser Evans, whose long-bomb from outside 50 metres sailed through to bring the Bombers back to within 11-points.
But the steadier for Ango came after a cool, calm, lovely pass from Jake Hood found Dylan Tuckwell at left-half-forward, who kicked accurately to stem the flow and ensure victory with a final margin of 12.13 (85) to 10.8 (68).