Stronger Sirens see off San Giljan

Sirens 15
(3-3, 4-1, 3-3, 5-1)
San Giljan 8

2X Sirens were too good for San Giljan Zara as the teams played their last league match of the season.

The 15-8 victory clearly mirrored the superiority of the St Paul's Bay team who displayed better ideas when in possession and more incisive swimming through timely breaks mainly from the free-scoring Jonathan Valletta, yesterday author of six goals.

Sirens' ascendancy was also shown by their better turnover in terms of substitution, through a longer bench, and a wider array of goal-scorers, eight in all, in contrast to San Giljan's four.

For the Saints, this match was an anti-climax after their epic battle when holding the then title contenders Sliema Burger King to a 10-all draw last week.

Six goals were shared in a balanced first session with the Saints taking the lead three times only to be caught up on each occasion.

Kayne Lanzon, John Xerri de Caro and Marco Cuk scored for San Giljan while two goals from Valletta and another from Paul Privitera evened matters.

Sirens made amends through Juergen Borg on the fourth occasion after having missed three man-ups to go 4-3 ahead for the first time early in the second session. It was here that Sirens raised their game against a faltering San Giljan who were without their suspended coach Joe Attard.

Goals from Reinhardt Attard, Valletta and Karl Montfort against a conversion from Xerri de Caro made it 7-4 for Sirens.

After conceding an eighth goal, through Privitera, San Giljan fought back to reduce the arrears through Cuk (twice) and Zammit.

But these goals prompted Sirens to press the forward button again and Valletta and Tamas Marcz scored in succession to make it 10-7 for Sirens.

Semi-zone cover was maintained in the last session but accurate shots mainly came from man-up situations, especially for Sirens. Valletta scored his fifth personal goal before Zammit netted his team's only goal from five exclusions in his team's favour. He made it 11-8.

The last minutes produced four goals for Sirens with Valletta making it six and the others coming from Neil Cassar, Clint Mercieca and Privitera. Thus, outgoing champions Sirens rounded off a comprehensive victory.

Sirens: J. Caruana Dingli, T. Debono, N. Cassar 1, P. Privitera 3, C. Zammit, J. Valletta 6, J. Borg 1, D. Cutajar, K. Montfort 1, T. Marcz 1, C. Mercieca 1, R. Attard 1, A. Grech.

San Giljan: K. Schembri, C. Spiteri de Barro, A. Galea, C. Bonello, I. Azzopardi, M. Zammit 2, M. Cuk 3, D. Camilleri, G. Ghirxi, A. Borda, S. Borg, J. Xerri de Caro 2, K. Lanzon 1.

Refs: M. Caruana, L. Ceccarelli.

Division Two

Marsaxlokk collect points

Marsaxlokk 15
(3-3, 5-2, 4-3, 3-2)
Otters 10

Marsaxlokk Freeport went on the six-point mark after picking the spoils in their victory over Otters.

The team from the south shrugged off the challenge of their opponents in the second session to take an 8-5 advantage midway through the match.

Paul Dimech's team tried to make a fight of it. They kept pulling back goals, especially from Stefan Grech and Martin Toth who each scored a hat-trick, in response to conversions from Simon Cachia and Sergei Frolov, each scorer of four goals for Marsaxlokk.

The gap, however, could not be bridged and the final score was legitimate.

Marsaxlokk: D. Debono, S. Cachia 4, R. Calleja, A. Farrugia 1, N. Kerr 2, C. Bugeja 1, E. Pisani 1, S. Cutajar, S. Frolov 4, J. Lubrano 1, D. Cassar 1, K. Grima Scott, R. Bonnici.

Otters: R. Grech, F. Bajada, G. Zammit 2, S. Grech 3, T. Cachia, David Saliba 1, K. Mizzi, M. Toth 3, S. Scicluna 1, Darren Saliba, G. Xuereb, K. Scicluna.

Refs: R. Spiteri, A. Farrugia.