By BRIAN STOCKWELL
DOWN 2-1 with about five minutes to go in your 11th straight soccer grand final, playing on a field just big enough for 12 year olds, you probably would be excused for chalking this one up to experience and going down gracefully.
But that was not the case on Friday night when veteran duo Michael Shepherd and Steve Cooksey combined in the over-35 grand-final.
Just as they done for 10 consecutive years before, the two led from the back.
It took a perfectly weighted free kick from 35 yards out from Mick Shepherd to level the scores before the end of regular time.
Finding his range, Shepherd scored a hat-trick, but it was a whole team performance for the full 120 minutes.
Going in to extra time against a determined Coolum side, Noosa lifted – and after another 30 minutes walked away with their fourth consecutive championship and a comprehensive 6-2 win.
The Fourth Division had their chance at glory in the next game.
Thanks to a few nimble fellows with good ball skills, Noosa quickly adjusted to the small field conditions, unlike their highly fancied rivals Kawana.
It was the Lions’ tall timber Tavish Patterson who opened the scoring, timing a header from the corner perfectly.
Not too long after Kawana levelled.
It took until after the 80th minute for a great run and shot by Nick Bloxsome to seal the championship for Noosa.
Reaching the grand final in their first year as a squad, Noosa Coastal Women could not repeat their semi-final heroics against Cooroora.
The Cooroora women – who only lost twice all season (both times to Noosa) – were deserved champions with a 4-0 win.
Noosa supporters were spread thinly on Saturday morning as the grand-final of three junior sides, under-14 (1) boys and girls and under-13 (2) boys, all kicked off at 9am.
It turned out to be the witching hour for Noosa with all three sides going down.
The under-14 (1) boys would have to be the unluckiest side on the day being clearly the better side on the field. Noosa dominated position and forwards Will McKie and Noah Harte had at least six one-on-one opportunities in goal.
Maroochy’s goalie displayed great skills to keep Noosa scoreless for over an hour and despite numerous raids the sides could not be separated after extra time.
Unfortunately Noosa went into the penalty shoot-out without their regular goalie.
It took a diving save from the Maroochy goalie to deny Noosa the championship.
The last junior game of the day saw Noosa under-17 (2) side come up against Kawana.
This was an end-to-end pitched battle which saw striker Lucas Van de Steer come on after 20 minutes and slot the only goal of the game.
A well-deserved championship to a side that grew in confidence as the season progressed under coach Craig Thomson.
