Football
29 July, 2024
Tatel's double hat-trick leads Falcons to victory
A hat-trick in both halves to Stephen Tatel has guided the Horsham Falcons under-14s soccer team to a commanding 10-5 victory over Hamilton in round 11 of the South West Victoria Football Association.
In front of their home crowd at Dudley Cornell Park, the young Falcons came out firing, with numerous shots on goal, and got two goals clear early before Hamilton scored.
Stephen Tatel scored six goals, a hat-trick in the first half and another in the second half.
Jesse Charity kicked two goals with Kaden Thomas and Breeze Bingarape scoring one apiece.
Coach Gavin McRoberts said he gave simple instructions, and the boys followed them well.
"We devised a game plan when playing the Warrnambool Wolves a few weeks ago, and today, they hit the ground running and followed the plan, and it worked," McRoberts said.
"We wanted to get the ball forward as fast as we could, and we got past their defence rather than getting stuck in the midfield as we have in the past.
"When we first adopted this strategy against Warrnambool, the boys took to it and hit their stride, and this week, they put it into action."
"I am stoked for the kids. They have worked hard and are learning this week and deserve this victory."
The Falcons had that many shots on goal that McRoberts believed they could have won by more.
"We had so many shots on goal and near misses, it wasn't funny," McRoberts explained.
"Kaden himself has six or eight shots on goal and scored one, but he could have scored more, and other players also had so many near misses."
Earlier in the day, the Warrnambool Wolves defeated the under-12s by four goals, 5-1.
The Wolves are a top team, and last week, the Falcons played them and lost 12-0, so the improvement this week was massive.
McRoberts said they had their chances, too.
"The boys created a lot of shots but couldn't put it in the net. Kaden Thomas got our only goal," McRoberts said.
"There was a massive improvement in general team play, as they got the ball forward faster and put the opposition under more pressure.
"Our goalkeeper, Caleb Dickerson-Williams, made some great saves, and we had a couple extra personnel, which we haven't had."
Speaking of personnel, the Falcons are getting more inquiries and kids turning up to play in their internal competition. On Sunday, approximately 20 kids showed up.
"Things are steadily improving, and we are getting new kids to training on Friday night," McRoberts said.
"We don't want to graduate them too soon to competition, but the fact that we are getting more people to the club is a great sign for the future."
The seniors had a bye. The Stawell Pioneers under-12s had a 3-0 win over Warrnambool Rangers.