CASTERTON Sandford racked up its second win of the 2019 Western Border football season on Saturday, when it hosted South Gambier over the border at Island Park.
A massive first-half effort from the Cats left the Demons with an almost impossible task heading into the main break, having scored just seven points in two quarters of football.
The hosts on the other hand had no trouble finding the big sticks, out-scoring South by five goals in the first term, before adding another 3.2 before half time to establish a 44-point margin.
To the Demons’ credit, they found their legs in the second half and tripled their score in the third term.
They scored 2.4 to the Cats’ 2.3 in the premiership quarter, which left plenty of work to do in the final stanza.
In a valiant effort, the Cats were held to juts three minor scores in the fourth, while South nearly doubled its score again with three goals and four behinds.
However, the damage done in the opening half was too severe and a 24-point win resulted for the Cats.
A shared workload in front of goals saw the Cats’ Dylan Ayton, Ricky Killey and Will Macdonald all with three majors at the end of the match, while Josh Searle rounded out the scorers with a single.
But Searle’s efforts stretched further than the forward line and he was named as the Cats’ best for his round-six performance.
Glen Widdicombe was also in fine form and received second best for the victors, while Mark Cowland and Ben Guthrie received mention as well.
Rounding out the Cats’ best was Justin Carlin, who continued his recent good form.
For South it was no surprise to see Brayden Kain lead the charge in front of goals, albeit with just two majors.
He was joined by Jake Tentye and youngsters Todd Reid, Alex Harkness and Kyle Jones who all contributed singles.
However, it was the efforts from Scott Flemming which were rewarded with the best-on-ground honours, while Brock Keding, Bronson Saffin, Nick Jenkin and Tentye rounded out the top players.
The win jumps the Cats to fourth on the ladder, now above South by just 4pc with two wins each.
The Victorians will be put to the test in the coming weeks and their round-seven meeting with West Gambier will be the ultimate test to whether they can be pegged as finals contenders.
Match fitness again appeared to be an issue on Saturday, which let the Demons back into the game in the second half.
That will need to improve if the Cats are to keep winning games, as the top-order sides have shown they are more than
capable of playing out the full four quarters.
