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PAKENHAM seized ownership of the Cardinia Shield for the first time with a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over local rivals Bunyip Strikers.
In the second Cardinia Shield clash, after a few light skirmishes near the goals it started to heat up in the 29th minute. Pakenham’s defence tried to clear a ball near the goal but to no prevail as all three attempted clearances went to Bunyip’s Tony Le Juing and on the third block, tapped the ball in, to give Bunyip a 1-0 lead.
Bunyip didn’t wait long for number two, which came off the boot of Peter Cardus from the six-yard box, who kicked the bouncing ball over his head into the top right hand corner granting Bunyip a 2-0 lead at the half-time break.
Pakenham coach Mario Hilli, was infuriated at half time and made some changes as injured keeper Jarrod Reynolds went to the bench and seconds keeper Aaron Vaughan came on, and structural changes on field occurred.
The comeback was starting to take place and in the 61st minute captain Keegan Bloomfield slotted Pakenham’s first goal from inside the 18 yard box.
Bloomfield followed it up in the 75th minute as he chased down a through ball and beat the charging Bunyip keeper Nathan Cook – who brought Bloomfield down to draw a penalty for Pakenham.
Ben Franssen, an ex-Bunyip player, stepped up confident for Pakenham to take the spot kick and missed as Cook fumbled the save but couldn’t stop Franssen kicking it in on the rebound to make it 2-2 with 15 minutes left.
In the dying minutes Bloomfield put fellow striker Jayden Write through, Write making amends for his earlier miss to calmly slot home Pakenham’s third and match-winning goal.
The final whistle went and the Pakenham crowd joined the team on field to savour the hard-fought victory over their rivals Bunyip.
Bunyip’s Le Juing was awarded man of the match by the referee.
CARDINIA SHIELD 2
SCOREBOARD
PAKENHAM
Keegan Bloomfield (61’), Ben Franssen (75’), Jayden Wright(83’)
BUNYIP
Tony Le Juing (29’), Peter Cardus (38’)
