A close contest between Exiles Ferretti and Sirens Ritter Sport was always on the cards as the St Paul’s Bay team were after their second win to possibly avoid the wooden spoon while Exiles were seeking to at least break their duck points-wise.
As it turned out Marco Risso’s team resolved the match in their favour, a game which had several twists, with Arpad Babay earning his team’s plaudits with his two decisive goals in the latter part of the last session followed by another from his Hungarian com-patriot Csaba Kiss.
Alex Attard scored the first of his three goals to give Sirens the lead. Alexander Radovic equalised and Kayne Lanzon netted two for a 3-1 advantage for Exiles.
Kiss, Attard and Zack Mizzi turned it round for the north-erners for a 4-3 first-session lead.
Another close quarter had the teams sharing six goals. Radovic reached his hat-trick as did Attard, with Peter Borg, Juergen Borg and Babay opening their personal account.
It was 7-6 for Sirens at the interval with everything to play for.
All-pitch press prevailed, with the foreigners in each side closely shadowed. After Radovic scored his fourth goal (7-7), the lead alternated with Peter Borg, Kiss, Mizzi, Lanzon (his third of four goals) and David Pace Lupi scoring in this order for the third session to end 10-9 for Exiles.
The final twist came with under four minutes left after the score had been locked 11-apiece. Three goals by Sirens’ Hungarian duo sealed the issue in their favour.
Marsaxlokk ASC, helped by five-goal Robert Kovacs, gained their first point of the season when they shared 20 goals with Otters Nivea in a match marked by some controversial decisions, two red cards for Otters’ players and a yellow card for their coach Paul Dimech.
The opening session finished at three-all, with Otters responding every time they were in arrears.
A second goal for Kristoff Martin and a third by Vuksanovic sandwiched a conversion by Andrei Edward for a 3-1 second-session scoreline with Kurt Mock scoring for Marsaxlokk. It was 6-4 for Otters at the half way mark.
After ends were changed Vuksanovic and Duncan Schem-bri were soon dismissed for good with substitution and that left the Gozitans depleted.
Marsaxlokk profited by redu-cing the deficit 7-6 after winning that session 2-1.
The southerners continued to gain ground given the favourable circumstances but Otters replied after they were 10-9 behind.
This time Edward was their chief marksman when netting two more goals, the last saving the game for his team.
Marsaxlokk 10
Otters 10
(3-3, 1-3, 2-1, 4-3)
Marsaxlokk: M. Scerri, L. Friggieri, M. Agius, E. Meli 1, K. Grech, K. Mock 1, A. Galea, C. Bugeja 1, R. Kovacs 5, P. Kovacs 2, T. Camilleri, J. Fenech, G. Zammit.
Otters: N. Grixti, G. Attard, G. Zammit, A. Borg, P. Sciberras, A. Cachia, K. Scicluna, D. Schembri, A. Edward 3, S. Dimech 1, C. Martin 2, I. Vuksanovic 3, K. Grima Scott 1.
Refs: P. Giordano, S. Licari.
Exiles 11
Sirens 14
(3-4, 3-3, 4-2, 1-5)
Exiles : I. Bugeja, J. Rizzo Naudi, S. Vassallo, D. Pace Lupi 1, N. Portelli, A. Radovic 4, J. Spiteri Staines, V. Cupic, K. Grixti, P. Borg 2, S. Galea Pace, D. Borg, K. Lanzon 4.
Sirens : A. Grech, Z. Mizzi 2, M. Grech, J. Napier, A. Babay 4, C. Kiss 4, J. Borg 1, D. Cutajar, A. Zarb Cousin, A. Attard 3, S. Micallef, G. Debono, J. Cremona.
Refs: A. De Raffaele, A. Pastucci.
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