By DANIEL MOSCA - Division 2 Seniors
WITH the home-and-away season coming to a close, the Caroline Springs Lakers will go into the Finals with their confidence sky high after dismantling the Yarraville Seddon Eagles to the tune of 76-points at home on Saturday.
Coming into the game, however, both teams were fully aware that the result would have no bearing on either teams place on the ladder with both, the Eagles and the Lakers already cementing themselves in second and third place, respectively.
Regardless, it was an important win for Caroline Springs, who finished the season with two straight wins - both against top-four opponents - and earned themselves a little payback against the Eagles, who bested the Lakers last time these two teams met.
Despite the majority of game being a somewhat one-sided battle in favour of the Lakers, the visiting Eagles were tough early, coming out of the gates optimistic after their 86-point hiding over Manor Lakes a week earlier.
The two teams traded punches in the early stages, kicking two goals apiece in the opening term, but failed to put on any real scoreboard pressure as both teams' backlines held strong early.
It looked primed to be a tight contest the rest of the way with the game being played in close and Caroline Springs taking just a one-point lead into the first break.
However, the Lakers had other ideas and broke the game open in the second quarter, completely dominating the visitors out of the middle and suffocating them with their on-ball pressure.
Led by Brian Lake and bolstered by their home crowd, they banged on six goals in the second quarter while holding Yarraville Seddon to two behinds to take a commanding 39-point lead into half-time, with the Eagles struggling to win the hard ball.
Yarraville Seddon came out looking to make amends for their poor second quarter, but as the second half commenced, the bleeding didn't stop for visitors as they were once again badly outplayed by Caroline Springs and failed to stand up to their pressure.
They conceded four goals to the Lakers in the third quarter and if it weren't for Shane Weatherley breaking the drought late in the third term, it would've been the first game all season that the Eagles failed to kick a goal in consecutive quarters.
They trailed by 58-points at the last break and things didn't get any easier in the fourth quarter for the Eagles as the Lakers booted four goals to two to run away winners by 76-points.
Brian Lake finished with six goals for the home side and received an abundance of support from Rodney Rich and Matt Chapman, who set the tone early.
Going into the first round of the finals, Caroline Springs are set to play Glen Orden in a knock-out game while Yarraville Seddon will take on first placed North Footscray for a chance to go straight through to the Grand Final.
In other games, Glen Orden were aided by Dane Thomas's six goals to annihilate Albanvale by 101-points while last placed West Footscray suffered their 15th loss of the season, falling to North Footscray by 106-points to cap off a disappointing season for them.
Last Modified on 15/08/2016 15:22