Played at Ocean Grove, City retained its unbeaten status by posting its third win of the 2022 season, giving the competition newcomers a pleasing 3-0-1 record.

Only Barwon, which won 2-1 away from home against West Point, sits above Bendigo City on four-straight wins.

A workmanlike victory over the Waves was aided by a hat-trick of goals from rising star Lewis Merriman.

Engaged early in a dour defensive struggle, Merriman opened the scoring in the 39th minute, before Sam Farr made it 2-nil to City just seconds before the half time whistle.

City blew the game open early in the second half, with Merriman's second and third goals in the 51st and 62nd minutes bookending one from last week's star Luke Burns in the 50th minute.

A goal for Burns was the 21-year-old striker's fifth for the season following a hat-trick last week in a win over Maribyrnong Greens.

He sits second on the league's leading scorer table, one behind Balmoral's Jason Moody.

The only blemish for City was a late free kick and goal from the Waves' Joshua Kuipers with the final kick of the game, reducing the margin to four goals.

Bendigo City coach Greg Thomas said it had been a tough and even uneventful few weeks for City goalkeeper Lachlan Priest.

"It's probably been hard on him, he's only touched the ball about twice in the last two games," he said.

"It's alright, we'll quickly move on from it."

For the second week in a row, Thomas was rapt to see his young squad navigate their way through some staunchly negative tactics from the opposition.

"They parked the bus a bit and we didn't get a breakthrough until about 10 minutes before half time," he said.

"They made it really difficult for us, but once we got one in we knew it would open up.

"We'd controlled the game even up until then and we did from then on as well and scored some decent goals.

"It seems like we are going to have to get used to it (negative defence), but we just have to keep finding ways to bring the opposition down.

A powerful performance was again led by Farr and young gun Sam Pitson, who continued their ultra-consistent seasons.

Thomas said the most pleasing aspect of finding the back of the net five times was that they were all 'good team goals'.

Bendigo City will play traditional rival Ballarat (1-1-2) at Epsom-Huntly next Saturday at 5pm.

Ballarat's 1-all draw with Balmoral on Saturday allowed Bendigo City to replace Balmoral (2-2) in second spot.

Meanwhile, Bendigo City continues to head the reserves ladder with a perfect four wins from four games following a massive 15-0 victory over Surfside.

Sean Boxshall led the way with five goals, while Ryan Merriman and Reid Murray each contributed two.

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