By: Lachlan SHIRLEY

GEELONG RANGERS hosted Surf Coast FC in Round 4 of the Geelong Region Men’s Division 1 competition at Myers Reserve on Sunday and came away with an emphatic 4-1 victory over the visitors from Torquay.

PHOTO: Barwon player Sam Kidd put in a best on ground performance against Drysdale on Sunday. Here he is pictured in an old photo against Deakin (Photo courtesy of Facebook)

Matthew Long and Darren McCallum both scored singles apiece for the Rangers while Zachary Harry scored a brace to secure the three points for the Dark Blues. The lone goalscorer for Surf Coast was not submitted by the club.

Rangers are yet to drop any points and remain outright leaders at the top of the table with 12 points from four games. Surf Coast remains 9^th with no points and are only ahead of bottom placed Breakwater on goal difference.

At Hume Reserve on Friday night, Corio SC ground out a hard fought 3-2 victory over a struggling Breakwater Eagles outfit.

Ryan Hamers and David Jeynes both scored for Breakwater to put up a decent fight, but it wasn’t quite enough to get anything from the battle between the two Eagles, as Adam Kumcevski scored a brace and Dragen Plavsic also scored to ensure Corio came away with all three points.

Corio now sits in third spot with eight points from four games. Breakwater are still bottom with 0 points but did put up a galant fight against Corio, hopefully giving them a confidence boost ahead of next week’s clash with Barwon.

Back to the Sunday afternoon action, Surfside Waves visited Lara United at Lara Recreation Reserve and managed to defeat the hosts 3-0. Stuart Mandley, Mathew Kirk and Adrian Bond all contributed to Surfside’s important victory.

The result sees Surfside leap to 5^th position on the ladder with 6 points, ahead of Lara United who are currently in 7^th spot, also with 6 points.

In what is becoming a very heavily bunched up fight for spots in the middle of the ladder, the only thing separating the 5^th, 6^th and 7^th placed sides is goal difference.

In the other game, Barwon secured the three points against Drysdale, winning 2-0 at Grovedale Reserve. Barwon played some good football on the day, with Cooper McCormack scoring for Barwon while their second goal came for an own goal.

Sam Kidd received a special mention from his club following a “man of the match” performance at centre back.

The result sees the reigning premiers jump to second on the standings with 9 points – not a bad effort for a club that lost its top two local Senior sides to its new State League 5 club. Drysdale, meanwhile, is in 4^th spot on the table with 7 points for the season.

Barwon Heads unfortunately forfeited the remaining Round 4 game to Deakin Ducks, who got all three points as well as a 3-0 scoreline. This result means the Ducks are now 6^th on the table with 6 points, while Barwon Heads find themselves in 8^th position with four points from the opening four games.

Lachlan Shirley is a young SEDA student, currently doing work experience with FFV Geelong. He will be compiling regular weekly reports on the Geelong Region Men’s and Women’s Division 1 competitions.