The AIC First XI football competition has been left with three unbeaten teams heading into an exciting fourth round of matches on Saturday.
Iona College, St Patrick’s College and Marist College Ashgrove all won their third round matches last Saturday.
The competition heads into a fascinating weekend with St Patrick’s hosting Iona at Curlew Park in the most important match of the season to this point. Ashgrove will host St Edmund’s College.
Villanova, which has lost only one match, travels to St Peter’s Lutheran College while Padua College will host St Laurence’s College.
At Curlew Park, St Patrick’s will hope to continue the unbeaten run which has included their matches against St Edmund’s, St Laurence’s and a drawn clash with Ashgrove.
St Patrick’s overcame St Edmund’s 4-3 last weekend in an entertaining match at Tivoli in which the home team challenged strongly for its first win of the season.
Iona retained its place on top of the ladder with a 2-1 win over Villanova. Iona has won its first three matches.
Iona skipped to an early 2-0 lead with goals against the run of play, ably supported by goalkeeper Jamie Cogman. He made an excellent save when Villanova had a penalty kick.
Villanova fought back to 1-2 at halftime when Joshua Smith scored with a well-taken half-volley. The second half remained scoreless, despite a fine goal attempt from Villanova ‘keeper Ollie Shanks, in front of a strong crowd for Villanova’s heritage round.
Ashgrove surged home with three late goals to defeat St Laurence’s 6-3 at Runcorn. The scores were tied with 15 minutes left after St Laurence’s continued to fight back from a goal down.
But Ashgrove continued to apply pressure with Zac Kierpal continuing his strong form with three goals despite the valiant St Laurence’s effort.
Padua claimed its first win of the season with a 4-2 triumph over St Peter’s at Elliott Rd.
The home team fought back after trailing St Peter’s 1-2 at halftime following two penalties to Paddy Cunningham, who was among the best players in the game.
Trent Millard grabbed a double for Padua as they stormed home to win after close results in their opening two matches.
