The Bellingen Open Girls High Football team has now completed the first three rounds of the state Knockout after rain at the end of term one had caused many cancellations.
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In round 1 the girls played a CHEC team with quite a number of ex Bello girls! The current Bellingen team took away the game 3-2 after ex-Bello girl Maddi Allen was amazing in goals.
This put them in round 2 against Woolgoolga High School to be played at Corindi. This game was a lot closer, even though the Bellingen girls dominated they found it impossible to score.
This put them in to 10 minutes each way sudden death extra time. Despite some very clear scoring opportunities for Bellingen it seemed the ball could just not find the net. This meant a penalty shootout!
The coach was very confident as we had the best keeper in Gaia Malcisi and also five keen penalty takers! Thankfully all our shooters did their job (although captain Katie did not even need to take hers) and Gaia saved two of theirs.
This put them in the third round against Coffs Harbour High School who had finished on top of Dorrigo, Grafton and South Grafton.
This game was played at Connell Park in very wet conditions. The Bellingen girls played some of the most impressive passing game again and again, however shots were few and far between even though we were camped in Jetty’s half. Unfortunately, a fast break saw a corner result and from the following play a goal scored and Bellingen was one down.
Following half time the girls continued their fantastic passing game but were now taking more shots – although they still couldn’t find the net until young Sophie Boyd completed the job. The game was 1-1 and would not change before full time.
Here we go again into sudden death extra time but this time wasted little time with Willow Neal converting a well stuck goal.
The girls will now have to play Wauchope High School who are the winners of the Lower North Coast Zone, hopefully at home. Wauchope HS is always strong and we will need our shots to hit the target for this next game.
While the open girls have had close games both the boys and girls move on to the third round in Bill turner Cup and Bill Turner Trophy.
The boys won their second round match against Nambucca 5-1 while the girls smashed Macksville HS 20-0.
