Marsaxlokk Freeport 8

Ta' Xbiex M.Paradise 7

(2-2, 2-1, 2-2, 2-2)

Marsaxlokk registered their second seasonal win when they beat Ta' Xbiex narrowly in a game with an exciting finale. Incidentally, the first round encounter between these two teams also ended with a tight minimum margin when Ta' Xbiex had emerged winners with a score of 10-9.

The session scores indicate clearly the balance between these two sides with three sessions ending at 2-2 and only the second session ending 2-1 in favour of the southerners.

Ta' Xbiex had a positive start going 2-0 ahead with goals from their hat-trick boys Tom Van Oost and Karl Rizzo Naudi. However Marsaxlokk managed to overturn this deficit to a 4-2 lead midway into the second session through a Sergey Frolov brace and goals from locals Alan Farrugia and Simon Cachia. The latter, unfortunately, had to withdraw from the match after injuring his groin.

Just nine seconds from midway into the match, Ta' Xbiex reduced the margin with Rizzo Naudi's second on the day with a diagonal shot from the right.

Ta' Xbiex's import Van Oost put his side back into the lead with two goals within a minute, the second through a delicate seven metre lob.

This lead lasted three minutes as then it was Keith Grima Scott who netted two consecutive goals, one with a nice back-hand, to end the third session 6-5 in M'Xlokk's favour.

A Rizzo Naudi push-shot on a break levelled the score once again and two minutes from the end of the game Dorian Pisani scored on a man-up to put Ta' Xbiex 7-6 in the lead.

Just 40 seconds later, the southerners made it 7-7 when Jason Vella beat Tanti with a close-range back-hand shot and the tension rose in the pool.

On their last offensive play Marsaxlokk grabbed the winner when Alan Farrugia's shot was deflected by Duncan Schembri and totally put Tanti out of position.

Rueben Bonnici then saved the day for M'xlokk with a good save on a Rizzo Naudi last effort attempt two seconds from the final buzzer.

M'Xlokk: R. Bonnici, S. Cachia 1, R. Calleja, A. Farrugia 2, G. Lubrano, C. Bugeja, E. Pisani, S. Cutajar, S. Frolov 2, F. Testa, D. Debono, J. Vella 1, K. Grima Scott 2.

Ta’ Xbiex: A. Tanti, G. Attard, K. Rizzo Naudi 3, K. Sciortino, T. Boyd, J. Rizzo Naudi, C. Saliba, D. Schembri, T. Van Oost 3, C. Sciortino, S. Balzan, D. Pisani 1.

Refs: A. Farrugia, M. Caruana