Monaro Panthers have kept their fairytale run alive for their head coach Frank Cachia and are one win away from the championship.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The side walked away with a 2-0 win on Saturday night against Gungahlin United to book their ticket to the grand final.
It was Monaro who pounced first in the preliminary final, catching United off guard.
Monaro's Kista Aimilio fired off a shot from inside the 18, forcing goalkeeper Jacob Quinn to make a save. But Gungahlin's defence was slow to react.
Zac McLaren followed it up, beat his defender and fired it home in the opening two minutes to take the lead.
MORE CANBERRA SPORT:
After the pair's three scorelines this season, Cachia's side knew they had to take the lead early if they had any hope of a securing themselves a grand final berth.
So from the first minute, it was going to plan for the Panthers, before they almost doubled their lead minutes later. But Quinn stopped it in its tracks.
"Despite the score, I felt like we had our backs against the wall a little bit there but we defended pretty stoutly," Cachia said.
"We had some chances there to score a few more time. I thought (Jordan) Thurtell in goals was outstanding when he really needed to be in the second half.
"It was a pretty decent performance and you could see the boys, they're really working hard for each other."
The Panthers' next best chance came via a free kick on the edge of the box. Andre Carle stole the ball from United as they tried to play out from the back.
Carle was surrounded by three Gungahlin defenders immediately, and Bernard Rene was lucky to walk away with a yellow as he clipped the No.9's heel as he drove towards goal.
It was Michael John who scored Monaro's second in the 48th minute. He played the ball into Carle, as he progressed his run forward, and picked it up on the edge of the box to send it bottom corner.
The 2-0 scoreline stayed until the final whistle, Gungahlin unable to claw one back before full-time.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark canberratimes.com.au
- Download our app
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
Isobel Cootes
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
