Saints pluck Eagles

St George Saints continued their merry march up the ladder with a surprise 2-1 win over competition leaders PCYC Parramatta Eagles at St George Stadium on Saturday night. The Saints came out firing and led through Tanju Balabanel inside eight minutes before the Eagles started to get their act together to trail by one goal at the break.

Parramatta hit the ground running in the second term and a fantastic 25m blast from Craig Jacob leveled the scores on 57-minutes. But the joy was shortlived when, a minute later, Juan Carlos Chavez caught the Eagles defence off guard to slip in the winner and his 21^st goal of the year. Parramatta’s loss was compounded when Mathew Clowes was sent off with just minutes left to play.

The win – their first over the Eagles at St George – moved the Saints into fourth spot on the ladder, a point ahead of Macarthur, and with just a slight chance of making it past third-placed Spirit to claim a “second chance” card in the finals. St George sits one point off Spirit and play Granville (away) and Liverpool (home) in the closing two weeks.

Parramatta coach Jason Falzon applauded his team’s effort. “It just shows how close it can be,” he said. “The intensity was really high from both teams, but we should not have lost the match; we just have to get on with it now. I can’t fault the effort of the boys, they just didn’t put it in the back of the net.” Parramatta faces Sydney Uni at Melita next week before traveling to Mount Druitt in the final round.

St George Saints 2 (Tanju Balabanel 8m Juan Carlos Chavez 58m) PCYC Parramatta Eagles 1 (Craig Jacob 57m)