A perky Sirens Ritter Sport started their 2012 knock-out trek on a positive note under their new Italian coach Marco Risso when they secured a healthy six-goal advantage at the expense of Exiles Ferretti yesterday.

It was a contest which the northerners fully deserved to put under their belt particularly, thanks to a collective effort which had seven of their squad members inserting their names on the scorers’ list which was ultimately led by three-goal Hungarian Tsaba Kiss. He was followed by Alex Attard, Arpad Babay and Charlie Zammit on two goals each.

Despite a better start, which at times saw them take a two-goal lead, Sirens blew their opponents apart in the third session when netting four goals without reply.

Exiles had a poor outing, not only squandering nine of their 13 man-up sets but also contriving to be caught on the counter time and again.

Sirens’ three on nine reading was not healthy but then they displayed more venom in the hot zone and netted nine goals on numerical parity.

Sirens 12
Exiles 6
(3-2, 3-3, 4-0, 2-1)

Sirens: A. Grech, A. Attard 2, A. Sammut, P. Micallef, A. Babay 2, T. Kiss 3, J. Borg, D. Cutajar, A. Zarb Cousin 1, C. Zammit 2, C. Spiteri de Barro 1, D. Zammit 1, L. Caruana.

Exiles: A. Borg Cole, J. Rizzo Naudi, K. Rizzo Naudi, D. Pace Lupi 1, T. Sullivan 1, S. Vassallo, J. Spiteri Staines, K. Grixti, S. Galea Pace, P. Borg 1, A. Kunac, M. Toth 3, K. Lanzon.

Refs: M. Angileri, A. Petronilli.

Programme
Today: Div. One KO SF (first leg) 6 p.m. Ta’ Xbiex vs Otters. Premier KO SF (first leg) 7.15 p.m. Neptunes vs San Ġiljan.
Tomorrow: Div. One KO SF (first leg) 5 p.m. Marsascala vs Valletta. Premier KO QF (second leg) 6.15 p.m. Exiles vs Sirens.