SA school football live stream: Sacred Heart narrowly beats Westminster | Messenger Shield
It was one of the most thrilling college football matches of the Messenger Shield season – Westminster trailed Sacred Heart by six goals in the final quarter only to narrowly lose by four points. WATCH the match replay and read the report here.
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Westminster went in as the underdogs in its Messenger Shield first XVIII college football clash against local rival Sacred Heart away on Saturday.
Hearts had only lost one match this season — to reigning three-time champions Prince Alfred, — while the Dragons entered the clash with a 2-2 record.
The hosts held a six-goal advantage in the last quarter but Westminster refused to give up and turned the contest into an absolute thriller.
Westminster kicked five goals in that last quarter to only go down 7.11 (53) to 7.7 (49).
The nailbiting match was the perfect start of The Advertiser’s new era for Adelaide’s premier schoolboy competition, giving readers a chance to watch the game from the comfort of their living room with a live stream.
SCROLL DOWN TO WATCH THE REPLAY
Xavier Robins, Riley Holder, Austin Redden and Coper Beecken were best on ground for the hosts.
Luke Dewhirst Henry McAuliffe were Hearts’ multiple goal kickers.
Sacred Heart coach Jon Symonds was proud of his players for holding on and also credited Westminster for putting up such a strong fight.
“It got very tight at the end as the scoreboard would suggest,” Symonds said.
“Westminster had some serious momentum at the end there.
“That breeze was really strong and it was very hard to contain at the end.
“They (Westminster) got their first of five goals at around the 16-minute mark of that last quarter, so they kicked five in about eight minutes of footy.
“We were fortunate to hang on.
“If the game went a minute or two longer I dare say they would’ve been in front.
“But again, to our guys credit, we did the work early to put ourselves in a strong position and give ourselves a big enough lead to hang on.
“We are happy to take the win and move on.”
Symonds said his team dominated the first half, in particular in the first quarter when Hearts held a 4.4 (28) to 0.0 (0) lead at quarter-time.
But he said his side has plenty to work on as Hearts had not been able to string a consistent performance together so far this season.
“We then defended really well in that second quarter and were able to push forward and kick a goal into that breeze and square the quarter away from a scoreboard perspective.
“Our stoppage work in the first half was very good and our forward line was quite mobile.
“I think our defence is holding up really well each week and making sure we aren’t getting scored against too heavily.
“But one of the areas of concern for us is that we haven’t been able to put four really good quarters together as yet.”
Luke McCranor, Will Wiseman, Riley Brown, Lukas Cooke, skipper Harvey Bock and Cooper Thomson worked hard for Westminster and willed their side back into the contest.
Cooke was the visitors’ multiple goal kicker, finishing with two.
McCranor, Jack Francis, Wiseman, Bock and Massimo Mammone all booted one major each.
Westminster coach Tim Weatherald said the school had struggled to get within 10 goals of Sacred Heart in previous seasons and players should be proud of their efforts this year.
“We have never beaten Sacred Heart so to get so close was a great effort by us,” Weatherald said.
“It was a really, really strong breeze going towards one end and I thought our third quarter gave us a bit of confidence because we were able to hold them down.
“For us it was about being a bit cleaner with the ball and because their pressure was great, they hurt us on the turnover.
“That last quarter, it was about getting the ball forward at any cost, play a bit of high-risk footy and the boys took the game om in that last quarter.
“We kicked a couple of really exciting goals and just didn’t quite get there in the end.
“The boys were obviously disappointed to get so close.
“But I was really proud they never gave up.
“We could’ve quite easily given us at the start of that last quarter but they just kept going, siren-to-siren.”