San Giljan 20 Exiles Jetfreight 8

Partial scores (4-2) (6-2) (3-1) (7-3)

Last night Exiles had to bow to a depleted San Giljan team when they met in the semi-final of the Premier Waterpolo Knock-Out tie which saw the Saints booking an easy passage to the Final of the 27th August 2016 with a comfortable win of 20-8.

Exiles’ resistance lasted up to half-way of the second quarter when the score read (5-3) for our opponents, before being rattled by another five goals to end the first half of the match six goals down (4-10). San Giljan’s Coach Orlovic took the opportunity to give precious playing time to the youngsters on the bench at his disposal. The third and fourth sessions were a formality as even Dorian Pisani shuffled his team once the game was practically over.

Exiles were punished by four exclusions (three converted) and three penalties in the first two sessions. In the attack, a handful of passes reached our centre in the hole as Milos Vukicevic as he was boxed in by a solid San Giljan rear-guard. Another factor was their failure to score any of the four man-ups at the team’s disposal.

All players on the match card were utilzed by Coach Pisani, Ian Bugeja, Julian Rizzo Naudi, Simon Vassallo, David Pace Lupi (1 goal), Daniel Borg Millo, Edward Gravina, Sean Gravina (2 goals), Kurt Griscti (1 goal), Nicky Paris, Andrea Bianchi, Milos Vukicevic (3 goals), Kayne Lanzon (1 goal) and second goalkeeper Gianni Ciappara who played just under 4 minutes in the last quarter.

San Giljan now await today’s encounter between Sirens and Neptunes for the other finalist in this season’s Knock-Out competition.

KaFa

photo by Adrian Farrugia shows Kurt Griscti (Blue cap) being tackled by San Giljan’s Ben Plumpton (White cap no: 9)

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