Sunshine Coast Women scored late to inflict a first defeat of the season on Eastern Suburbs Women, prevailing 2-1 at Kawana Soccer Club on Sunday.
The two sides traded goals in quick succession after the hour before free-scoring attacker Samara Christmas sealed Fire’s fourth win in eight games.
The hosts started with intent and had several attempts on goal early but were unable to pierce the away side’s defence.
Fire midfielder Kayla Moore had the best chance of the first 45 minutes when she was played through on goal for a one-on-one, but the 20-year-old only succeeded in drawing a low save at the near post from Easts ‘keeper Anastasia Mavrick.
Mavrick’s intervention kept it scoreless at the break, though she was unable to prevent Fire from taking control of the contest after a livelier opening to the second half.
Jess Davy won the ball in midfield and with options either side put Swedish forward Sofie Persson through to make it 1-0 from around the edge of the area in the 66th minute.
However, the visitors responded within two minutes through captain Laura Harris to level matters at 1-1 and keep alive their hopes of an eighth straight match without defeat.
Despite the setback, Dave Bensted’s side refused to settle for a point and in the 80th minute they were ahead once more.
Samara Christmas sealed the three points when she won possession in an attacking area and punished the Easts defence with a shot into the top corner to make it 2-1.
Easts pushed forward to create a goalmouth scramble in the final moments but were unable to force home an equaliser as Fire held on for an upset victory.
Speaking after the match, Fire goalscorer Samara Christmas reserved most praise for the home side’s defence.
“We had an amazing defence line today, they were on fire. We created a lot of opportunities and we stopped (Easts from creating) basically,” Christmas said.
Easts captain Laura Harris was disappointed with the defeat but refused to panic.
“It’s our first loss of the season which is never nice. I think we played well, we just a lot a bit of structure compared to the last few games we have played,” Harris said.
Sunshine Coast FC Women 2 (Sofie PERSSON 66’ Samara CHRISTMAS 80’)
Eastern Suburbs FC Women 1 (Laura HARRIS 68’)
Words: Matt Dorman
(Source: Football Queensland)
