Patrick Nolan does a spot of juggling as the Pakenham Cougars hoisted the cup for winning the Division Six South East championship with a round left to go. 86301 Picture: DONNA OATES
By JARROD POTTER
A CHAMPIONSHIP is an elusive enough beast to capture but to grasp one in a debut season is on a different plane of fantasy for most teams.
The Pakenham Cougars proved the exception to the well-worn path of new sides getting pummelled on debut – with their 3-1 victory over Mooroolbark, they’ve secured the premiership with a round left in the FFV Division Six South East competition.
The usually sedate back-drop of cow paddocks around Cardinia Reserve turned raucous with the crowd getting louder by the minute – especially the Pakenham FC firm – resplendently dressed up in skin-tight ‘morph-suits’.
Their cheers would go unrewarded for most of the first half as Mooroolbark struck first blood, with a lobbed through ball finding their striker who banged home their only goal for the day.
Pakenham had its chances denied by its own boots and some questionable referring, but in the 39th minute Elbert Teles decided to level proceedings with a free kick slamming into the top right hand corner.
With a draw on the table at the break, Pakenham came out to ensure the cup belonged in their hands by afternoon’s end.
Pakenham had attack after attack from all avenues – Patrick Nolan on the right wing, Elbert Teles up front and some strong work from Gareth Clegg to charge the ball forward from defence.
Two disallowed goals on marginal offside decisions and another disallowed penalty kept Mooroolbark in the match, but Wellington Teles finally broke the deadlock converting a penalty to help the Cougars to a 2-1 lead.
10 minutes later, his brother Elbert Teles got on the end of a through ball and dribbled around the keeper to secure the win.
Mooroolbark kept coming and had the chances in the last 15 minutes, but Pakenham’s defence was impenetrable and Aaron Vaughan pulled off some of his trademark reflex saves to help the Cougars win their first title.
Pakenham’s final match of the season is against North Caulfield at Caulfield Park 3, 1pm on Sunday.
Pakenham Cougars’ championship team: Keegan Bloomfield, Elbert Teles, Wellington Teles, Sebastian Moreno, Patrick Nolan, Edward Codd, Cris Moreno (captain), Brett Wright, Colin Kinlan, Shanil Kumar, Gareth Clegg, Sean Stevens, Aaron Vaughan, Aaron Bourke, Alex Herrera, Krishnil Kumar, Bradford Ellis, Marcus Tong, head coach Marcos Sakano and assistant coach Mark Dunn.
