EMOTIONS ran high for the Bendigo Dragons as the fledgling club stormed to its first-ever Gridiron Victoria win on Saturday night.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Dragons belted fellow division two new team Ballarat Falcons 20-0 in atrocious conditions at the Tom Flood Sports Centre.
A massive crowd of more than 2000 people watched Bendigo claim its maiden win at its first home appearance.
The Dragons led 8-0 at half-time, thanks to the first of two ran-in touchdowns by quarter-back Lucas Elliston, and scooted away in the second half.
“When the game started I think the hometown emotion was a bit too strong for our guys,” Dragons coach Robert Hunter said.
“We had to temper it back a bit and once we managed to keep their minds on the job, we just got to a point where we just ran at them.
“I just looked at their sideline to ours and we had two players to every one that they had.
“I just thought we would try to exhaust them and then know we had fresh legs and that’s what it came down to.”
Australian representative Elliston was outstanding for Bendigo, as he scored two touchdowns and passed off another to Stian Braaten.
“It’s very hard to not pick him as the game MVP. When you run two touchdowns and then decide to share one by throwing it to the wide receiver – that directly puts him in on three of them,” Hunter said.
“A lot of credit has to go to the defence as well for not letting Ballarat score at all. It was a great result, I was really pleased for the guys.”
Bendigo’s win could have been bigger if it wasn’t for the wet conditions, which made it tough for kicker Neil Johnson to convert.
“We were just unable to kick because of the water on the ball just made it as heavy as a rock,” Hunter said.
But Johnson’s kicking impressed the Geelong Buccaneers’ coach - whose team defeated Western Crusaders in the division one curtain-raiser.
“The coach of Geelong is also the coach of the state team and he said he’ll have him down for the state team for sure,” Hunter said.
“That’s pretty impressive for a Bendigo player to be nominated to try-out.”
The Dragons’ were blown away by the public support for the event.
“I love the sport, but I don’t even know if I would have gone out in those weather conditions if I didn’t have to,” Hunter said. “Imagine if it had been a pleasant day what the crowd would have been.”
The Dragons have the bye this weekend for the Queen’s Birthday holiday, before taking on Victoria’s number one team, Geelong, in round six.
