Solid victory caps off Big Freeze fundraiser for Stony

AFTER performing creditably against second-placed Morwell East the week before, Stony Creek was favoured to overcome 12th-placed Toora at the Racecourse Oval on Saturday.

They kicked the first goal, through coach Chris Verboon, and had the game on their own terms early before allowing Toora to get going with a 50-metre penalty and goal to Josh Symons.

And the Pies had the lead going into the first break when Josh Toner finished off a nice lead-up mark with a goal ahead of Stony key defender Matt Brown.

Stony took back the lead with two goals at the start of the second, one of them a nice long shot in the wet by Julian Stone but Toora responded with one of their own in an even contest.

It was some time before Stony was able to take back control again, via goals to Hayden Bull and Chris Verboon midway through.

In the spirit of ‘The Big Freeze’ Day MND theme, a wintry blast of rain swept the ground during the second quarter, but the crowd was enjoying some good contests with their cream doughnuts, between Dylan Zuidema and Chris Gardiner in the ruck, and between Jack Weston and Stony’s onballers but especially between Toora legend Cat Grant and Verboon at centre half forward.

Toora might have closed the gap by half time with a kick after the siren, but Chotnyang Park got too close to the man on the mark and the chance went begging.

It didn’t hurt that Jacob Byrnes was presented with a gift goal just before the last change, as a result of alleged umpiring abuse from the sidelines, but they were on their way to a win by then.