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The Strikers rattled off six of the last seven goals to establish a five-goal lead at the main break, all but one of them coming from the sure hands of Hayley Howard, who finished with a game-high 42 goals at 97.67 per cent accuracy, a season-high tally for the first-year Strikers shooter.<\/p>\n
Casey would only come closer than five goals to the Strikers once more, early in the third term.<\/p>\n
Brereton hailed the precious few minutes before half-time as pivotal.<\/p>\n
“It’s almost like we didn’t want half-time to come because you want to go with the momentum,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We got back out there and there were a couple of heavy collisions, so some forced changes that we had to make, but they were great changes.<\/p>\n
“Ruby B (Barkmeyer) was injected into the game and put her stamp on it and we kept pushing the lead out.”<\/p>\n
A key in curbing the influence of dominant Demons shooter Emma Ryde (29 goals at 79.38 per cent), Brereton and Strikers skipper Elle Nexhip sung the praises of Charlotte Sexton, back in the lineup from her whirlwind first SSN season with Melbourne Mavericks.<\/p>\n
The Australian Diamonds invitee’s defensive pressure in tandem with Ruby Turner, with Nexhip out in front at wing defence, was relentless and forced the Demons into errors.<\/p>\n
“We’ve played a lot of our season without her, but just the calibre of player she is \u2026 she’s been in a Suncorp environment with Mavs and just recently got a gig in the Aussie Diamonds,” Nexhip said.<\/p>\n
“Her experience and her presence in the goal circle against the likes of Emma Ryde definitely helps, just being a presence for us.<\/p>\n
“But I think everyone stepped up and played their role in moments and stayed locked in to the game for a full 60 minutes.<\/p>\n
“It was a really important win for us as a group and we were very happy to put out a 60-minute performance against Casey who are a really successful team.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
IN what the Bendigo Strikers hope is a sign of coming good at the right time of the season, the Championship team produced arguably its most complete performance of the VNL season in a convincing 13-goal win over Casey Demons on Sunday. The Strikers used their fifth home game of the season \u2013 and third […]<\/p>\n