The Cowra Senior Soccer Club held its first masters tournament over the weekend of November 7 and 8, and right there to join in on the action were the Young Lions.
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According to Young team member Ray Mitchell the aim of the event is to promote friendship and, for some, to relive their glory years.
The tournament consisted of eight teams from Huskisson, Bathurst, Young, Temora and Wagga.
Each team played three games on Saturday and were guaranteed at least one game on Sunday in a knockout format to decide winners in each pool.
However, some teams were short players and this is where the mateship comes to the fore. Players would play for other towns and therefore meet new people and run extra miles. Some are still sore a week later.
The Young team, however had come to perform and had a starting roster of 16 players, the most for quite some time.
The first game for Young was against Temora. Both teams played solid and defended for all their worth, however a late scrappy goal to Temora from a corner saw them take the win, 1-nil.
Young performed well for their first hitout, however one of their fittest and fastest players, Corey Lincoln, fell in a hard tackle, twisting his knee.
He saw no further part in the tournament.
Our three rookies, Trish Foxall, Tom Marshall and Kurt Lyzun, performed extremely well, fitting in well with a top performing outfit.
The second game saw Young come up against a stronger Wagga team, however, with one game under their belts, Young hit back to take a 3-1 win.
Richard Page had finally found his range and scored two goals, followed by a long range strike by Tom Marshall that would not look out of place in the A league, landing in the top corner.
Kyran Steenbergen was again tireless in defence.
Game three saw Young come up against the Cowra Lillies.
Young was struggling by now as the temperature had increased, along with tired legs.
Young battled hard in the first half to only trail 1-nil, however two goals in the second half saw the game end in a 3-0 loss.
Roy Jewitt tried in vain to score, letting go with long range efforts at the Cowra goal, however his aim was not like it was once and they went to every corner of the park.
Due to a countback on results, Young would play in the minor final on Sunday to compete for the Plate.
The game was against Cowra Black who had been very strong in each of their games on the Saturday.
The game was played at a quick pace, with shots at goal on each end, however Col Banwell in the Young goals, kept the scoreline at nil-all.
The game looked like going into extra time until Paul “Wal” Everdell made a speedy dash down the right wing to cross the ball into a waiting Tom Marshall who calmly headed the ball into the net past a diving Cowra goalkeeper.
The game had only five minutes to run and Cowra pushed hard, but Young held on for a 1-nil win.
Young had finally beaten Cowra after years of trying at various tournaments, winning the plate final.
“Now if we only had a clubhouse to display it in,” Mitchell said.
The teams next target is the Wagga Masters held in March.
They have decided to keep training on a Monday night at Hall Bros at 6pm. Any person wanting to have a kick around and a laugh is also welcome.
