In a match which had San Ġiljan All Care Insurance conducting the scoresheet almost throughout, the result went the Saints’ way with a comfortable 13-8 victory in Group B after they had to shake off Sirens’ initial resilience.
The result kept San Ġiljan’s clean sheet and thus an unblemished start to their Premier Division commitments.
The movement and scoring power of the team guided by Sergio Afric were some notches higher than anything their opponents could muster. Alexander Radovic stood out with a nap-hand of goals, with Sirens’ Christian Presciutti next in line in the scoring order of merit.
The Saints’ success had never really been under threat after the third session, although they had Matthew Zammit fouled out late in that penultimate quarter.
In the opening match, Exiles Ferretti buried their sloppy outing against San Ġiljan last weekend when they easily beat Otters Nivea, a result that seals Maurizio Mirarchi’s team a place in the top division.
Exiles were in cruise control, with the Gozitan side unable to respond to their opponents’ edge in the firing line, except for a relatively close first quarter which ended 6-4 in favour of the team from Sliema.
A six-goal rush in each of the subsequent quarters sealed the result, with Exiles extending their scorers’ list to ten in a landslide 22-6 victory.
Summaries
Exiles 22
Otters 6
(6-4, 6-0, 6-0, 4-2)
Exiles: I. Bugeja, J. Rizzo Naudi 1, S. Vassallo 2, D. Pace Lupi 2, G. Katonas 2, S. Galea Pace, J. Spiteri Staines 1, K. Grixti 3, L. Sekulic 4, P. Borg 4, B. Lanzon 2, N. Portelli, K. Lanzon 1.
Otters: Z. Sciberras, G. Attard, G. Zammit, K. Scicluna, J. Micallef, M. Dimech, J. Paris 1, D. Schembri 1, A. Edward 2, S. Dimech 1, C. Martin, I. Vuksanovic 1, K. Grima Scott.
Referees: P. Bensaia, A. DeRaffaele.
Sirens 8
San Ġiljan 13
(1-4, 3-2, 2-3, 2-4)
Sirens: N. Grixti, Z. Mizzi 2, C. Presciutti 3, G. Pace, M. Grech, C. Kiss 1, M. Caruana, D. Cutajar 2, J. Napier, E. Aquilina, L. Caruana, A. Sammut, M. Pisani.
San Ġiljan: D. Camilleri, C. Spiteri DeBarro, A. Galea, Karl Galea 2, K. Dowling 1, M. Zammit 2, A. Radovic 5, A. Bianchi, B. Plumpton, Z. Kovacic 1, P. Fava, D. Zammit 2, J. Sammut.
Referees: F. Romolini, M. Angileri.
Group A
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| Neptunes | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 64 | 26 | 9 |
| Sliema | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 52 | 24 | 9 |
| Valletta | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 32 | 35 | 3 |
| Marsascala | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 33 | 50 | 1 |
| Ta’ Xbiex | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 30 | 76 | 1 |
Group B
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| San Ġiljan | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 64 | 22 | 12 |
| Sirens | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 57 | 34 | 9 |
| Exiles | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 46 | 41 | 6 |
| Otters | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 35 | 75 | 3 |
| Marsaxlokk | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 35 | 65 | 0 |
Playing today
18.45 Valletta McDonald’s vs Marsascala Mor€; 20.00 Sliema Frank Salt Real Estate vs Neptunes Grimaldi.