On the final day of the Northern NSW Football Champion of Champions tournament, the best 14 and 16 years girls' community teams battled it out in a damp, but entertaining day of football.
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The 14 years competition saw Bellingen FC take out the top honours as winners after defeating Sawtell FC in the final, in an incredible penalty shootout featuring 10 rounds of spot-kicks to decide a winner after it was 1-1 at full-time.
The Champion of Champions competition, a competition for the premier teams of Northern NSW, was planned to be held over Friday to Sunday for the 14s and 16s girls. However, due to the forecast for rain, the competition was condensed into just one day. On Friday the Bellingen 14s Girls team took to the field at Coffs Stadium a total of four times.
The first game saw the girls meet Sawtell. Unfortunately luck didn't go their way, with a corner goal being disallowed and a missed penalty, Sawtell ended up winning 2-0. This was obviously disappointing for the girls but they knew if they played well enough in the next two games they could meet their rivals again in the final.
Next up the girls took on Dudley Redhead from Newcastle. The girls again created many opportunities but could not capitalise on most of them. We finally got one in the net - a header finished by Summer Hogan. The team dominated most of the game; however, Dudley Redhead managed to get a goal back equalising the score 1-1.
For the third game the girls were starting to tire but knew that if they had a chance of making the final they must beat Nimbin, winners of the Far North Coast competition, by at least 2-0. The girls were clearly on top right from the start but at half time the score was only 1-0 to Bellingen. Bello went back out there with a plan to push up in attack as much as possible which resulted in the girls scoring two goals in the last five minutes of the game finalising the score at 3-0 and securing their place in the final!
The final approached after a large downpour of rain and a significant drop in temperature as the viewers rugged up in the October cold snap. The game started in similar fashion to the grand final a month earlier, with Bellingen having plenty of attacking opportunities followed by a change in play resulting in Sawtell scoring. 1-0 at half time. The girls were encouraged to keep playing the same way and not to drop their heads - and then the equaliser came, with a great left-footed far post goal from Pixie Hill.
The standard of the game did not waver with both teams wanting to earn the title of Best of the Best. In the dying minutes of normal game time, coaches were informed that the game would not go into extra time and instead would go straight into a penalty shoot out. Both teams were exceedingly nervous with only one kicker in the top five for both Bellingen and Sawtell scoring.
First to hit the back of the net for Bellingen was #4 kicker Imogen Laverty, followed by #6 kicker Prue Burnet and #8 kicker Clementine Whitely. Goalkepper Tahahni Berger was absolutely exceptional in the penalty shoot out giving Bellingen the best possible chance but it was not until #10 kicker Tembi Vockler stepped up to the kick that Bellingen sealed their win.