By Rebecca Fraser
AN electrifying penalty shootout had the whole crowd enthralled last Friday when an Endeavour Hills primary school claimed a nail-biting victory at the fourth annual Casey Cup invitational soccer tournament.
Mossgiel Park Primary School narrowly beat Mary MacKillop Primary School during the thrilling shootout with the grand final creating a strong sense of deja vu for spectators at Doveton’s Waratah Reserve.
During last year’s tournament both schools made it through to the finals but the Mary MacKillop School, located in Narre Warren North, claimed victory following yet another penalty shootout.
But this year the tables turned with Mossgiel Park notching up a win following a day of round robin matches that saw more than 200 competitors from 11 Casey primary schools take to the field.
Grades five and six students from the various schools competed in boy-girl combination teams and was a change in routine from previous years when a separate tournament was held for both boys and girls.
Heritage College in Narre Warren South and a team from Narre Warren’s Maramba Primary were knocked out in the semi-finals and Oatlands, Fountain Gate, Berwick Lodge, Narre Warren North, James Cook, Berwick and Eumemmerring primary schools also fielded teams and Mossgiel Park had two groups competing on the day.
The annual event was organised and run by students from the Department of Sport and Recreation at Berwick’s Chisholm Institute as part of their assessment in event management and officiating classes.
Chisholm teacher and administrator of the sport and recreation department Anthony Gadd said the day had been a great success and they were already looking forward to next year’s tournament.
Mr Gadd said the event had been an electrifying prelude to the World Cup in Germany to be held later this year and he said all the feedback from the tournament had been fantastic.
