The Demons improved to 7-0 with a 56-point victory at home over Bears Lagoon-Serpentine in the battle of the top two teams.

The Demons kicked 19 goals from 23 scoring shots in their comfortable 19.4 (118) to 9.8 (62) victory.

“We came into the game expecting a really tough hit-out and we stuck to our structures and gameplan well,” Demons coach Anthony Dennis said.

“I was very pleased with the way the boys went about it for four quarters today.”

As for the impressive goalkicking accuracy: “We missed some easy shots against Marong last week and had a real focus today of capitalising and putting Serp under scoreboard pressure,” Dennis said.

“That was a big factor today… we were able to keep them under the pump because we were kicking straight.”

Jake Lawry, defender Alex Davis, Bryce Curnow and ruckman Chris Down led the best players for the Demons, who kicked 10 goals in the second and third quarters without a miss.

Curnow moved to the top of the league goalkicking with 32 after slotting another five, while the Demons also had Lachlan O’Neil, Vincent Rodi and Brodie Fraser chip in with three each.

While the Demons had another good spread of goalkickers, down the other end the Bears, who lost their second game, had Rhys Deacon (five) and James Rippingale (three) kick eight of their nine goals.

Justin Laird, Deacon and Andrew Gladman were the best of the Bears’ players.

• Mitiamo coach Justin Maddern kicked the Loddon Valley’s first double figure bag of goals since 2014 in the Superoos’ 60-point win over Inglewood.

Maddern’s 11-goal haul helped the Superoos, coming off a 21-day break, to an 18.13 (121) to 9.7 (61) victory at Inglewood.

“It was nice to kick straight for a change today… it obviously helps the morale around the team when our forwards kick well and finish off the good work from up the field,” Maddern said.

“It was a good four-quarter effort and response from the boys to our last game against Pyramid Hill (25-point loss) three weeks ago, which we were really disappointed with.”

Gun on-ball recruit Luke Scott again starred for the Superoos and Terry Reeves continued his consistent season in the midfield, while captain Dylan Clohesy made a welcome return off half-back in his first game of the year following a knee arthroscope.

Shane Harris kicked six of the Blues’ nine goals as he played a lone hand up forward. Jarrod Starr and Zach Raeburn also battled hard.

With the defeat, Inglewood has reached the halfway mark of its season winless.

“We’re obviously hoping for improvement in the second half of the season. We feel that we’re competing well for long periods within matches and that being 0-8 probably doesn’t reflect our effort,” Blues assistant coach Patrick Hartney said.

• Pyramid Hill has moved into the top five for the first time this season after dishing out a 99-point hiding to Maiden Gully YCW.

The Bulldogs kept the Eagles goalless until the 23-minute mark of the third quarter on the way to a 22.16 (148) to 7.7 (49) victory – their third in a row – at Maiden Gully.

“With the way we’re moving the footy and also defending, it’s really starting to click for us,” Bulldogs co-coach Brad Fawcett said.

“It’s good to see the stuff we’re working on at training is having an effect out on the park on a Saturday.”

The Bulldogs blew the Eagles away early with a blistering first term in which they led by 65 points at quarter-time, 10.6 to 0.1, while by half-time they were 86 points up.

Joe McGrath booted eight goals – and could have kicked plenty more – to head a list of 11 goalkickers for the Bulldogs, who knocked Bridgewater, which had the bye, out of the top five.

McGrath, ruckman Trent Barri and the consistent on-ball duo of Billy Micevski (three goals) and Andrew Dobby (two goals) were all prominent for the Bulldogs.

Of the Eagles’ score of 7.7, they kicked 6.2 in the final term, with Saturday’s 99-point loss following a 95-point belting from Bears Lagoon-Serpentine the previous week.

In their past two games the Eagles have been outscored a combined 101-2 in first quarters.

“Without wanting to make excuses, we’re in the situation where we’ve got 10 of our top 22 injured at the moment, which has really hurt our structures,” Eagles coach Daniel Francis said.

“But in saying that, we’ve got to be better than we have been in the past couple of weeks and we’ll be working hard to try to rectify that over the coming weeks.”

Elijah Naylor and Darcy Scheele were named best for the Eagles, who are now 2-5.

• Newbridge moved into the top three after kicking away from Marong in the final quarter in a dour struggle where just 16 goals were scored for the match.

The Maroons led by five points at three quarter-time, at which stage they had 5.9 on the board, but they added 5.2 to the Panthers’ 1.0 in the final term to prevail by 31 points, 10.11 (71) to 6.4 (40).

“Marong applied good pressure all day and we turned the ball over a lot. But I was happy with the way we ran the game out and played smarter footy in the last quarter,” Maroons coach Matt Dillon said.

Ruckman Tyler Romeril was again outstanding for the 5-2 Maroons, along with Ash Grant, Caleb Argus and William Daly.

Best for the Panthers, who kicked more than half of their score in the third term, were Zach Turnbull, Patrick Ryan and recruit Jarrod Fitzpatrick, who has been a shining light all season.