Eagles’ stars shine bright

A five-goal haul from Collie Eagles forward Joel Houghton helped guide the Eagles to a much-needed 16-point home win against the Eaton Boomers at the Collie Recreation Ground Sunday.

The home side now clearly sits in second position by a win after the 10.8 (68) to 7.10 (52) victory.

After bagging eight the week before against Bunbury, Houghton continued his strong form and has 13 majors to his name over the last two rounds to put his name in the race for the South West Football League’s leading goal kicker award.

A four goal to one first quarter was the powerful start that the Eagles needed, as Houghton bagged his first two in the opening quarter to give the home side a strong lead going into the first break.

Chris Atthowe began to lift the Boomers’ spirits throughout the second quarter, after kicking two goals and setting up Brendan Craig for another to give the Boomers their only lead of the day deep into the second quarter.

But a free kick and a 50m penalty for a delayed hit had Blair Malatesta turn the score around to give the Collie Eagles a six-point lead going into the main break.

Travis Cleggett yet again was the leader of the Eagles’ midfield, working well as a key link up man and taking crucial intercept marks to turn the play back over to the home side.

Houghton came out after half-time firing, kicking another three quick goals to open up a strong lead before Boomers’ Matt Jas was able to buck the trend to calm the ship for the Eaton Boomers and bring the margin back to a reachable 19 points.

From here on in the Eaton Boomers would have the majority of the play inside of their attacking half of the ground but could not capitalise on some great opportunities.

Small forward Michael Battaglia was able to break away from his bigger bodied opponent twice, but was only able to come away with one goal in the final quarter.

This was until Jayce Fontana was able to buck the trend in the dying stages of the final quarter with his side’s only major of the final term. This weekend the Eagles will battle Augusta-Margaret River, while the Boomers will take on Harvey-Brunswick-Leschenault on Saturday.