Catherine McAuley College buckled down to win the annual School Sport Victoria Premier League Football match against local rival Bendigo Senior Secondary College on Wednesday.
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CMC secured bragging rights for the next 12 months with the 22-point victory, 11.4 (70) over 7.6 (48).
"I was really happy with the first three quarters as we'd done enough hard work to set ourselves up," CMC coach Lee Coghlan said.
"We didn't have the best start to the final quarter, but to the boys' credit in the last five minutes they showed great composure to finish off the game."
CMC had command of the game from the first quarter onward and maintained control of the scoreboard, taking a 41-point lead into the fourth.
However, in the final quarter BSSC came out firing and put the first three goals on the board to bring themselves back to within striking distance, but time was against them.
"It's always a ripping game of footy, the heat was on early and I told our boys that we needed to be ready for them which they were," Coghlan said.
"The biggest positive for me was the way in which they started the game.
"The pressure was on our boys right from the start and they stood up to the challenge really well."
CMC's best on ground was James Worme followed closely by Jack Stewart.
"James was huge for us today, his work in the ruck was terrific and during the match he got himself around the ground with some strong possessions," Coghlan said.
"Jack's first half was honestly the best I've ever seen him play, he showed that he really is a serious footballer."
CMC's Fletcher White led the scoring with three goals, followed by Stewart and Myles Livingston with two each and single contributions from various other players.
BSSC coach Danny O' Bree said the game came down to being able to do the "simple things" of football really well.
"Footy is a simple game and if you do the simple things better than the opposition you generally come away with the better result," he said.
"I challenged our boys at three-quarter time from the way they wanted to play.
"We were able to simplify it all in that last quarter but it was too late.
"During the game we gave three free kicks and 50m penalties which resulted in three goals and essentially we were beaten by four goals.
"But we fought and responded well in the final quarter which was a good positive result from them."
Best on ground for BSSC was Mitch Hallinan, while Ryley Taylor, Mike Kiraly, Macey Eaton, Evan Davie, Zac Tickell, Noah Weihrauch and Pat Murphy booted one goal each.
CMC will now play Horsham, while CMC will have a tough battle against Emmanuel College.
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