ROUND 2 of the Women’s Premier League on Saturday saw a thrilling high-scoring draw in the Fremantle Conference along with a big win for the North Coast Phoenix while the UWA City Beach Blues opened their account.

It was the second round of the 2017-18 Women’s Premier League season with the new conference system in place and it produced three intriguing contests on Saturday.

The Fremantle Conference action took place at Bicton Pool and that saw Applecross and the Melville Marlins play out a tremendous and exciting high-scoring 15-15 draw. The North Coast Phoenix also opened their account for the new season beating Dolphins 16-2.

The UWA Conference match was played at HBF Stadium that saw the UWA City Beach Blues defeat the Rangers 11-6. Triton had the bye following their opening round victory.

Following two rounds of the 2017-18 season, Kelly Parks of Applecross and Erin Redbond of the Melville Marlins are the Premier League’s leading scorers with seven goals.

Zoe Stenhouse of North Coast Phoenix has scored six goals and Zoe Arancini of the Marlins six.

Chloe Nella (Marlins), Gemma Hadley (Phoenix), Ella Fracaro (UWA City Beach) and Sofia Chaves (Applecross) have all scored four goals each.

Starting with the Fremantle Conference action at Bicton Pool, two Melville teams locked horns when Applecross played the Marlins. It was the defending champion Marlins who opened up the first break in the contest leading 5-2 by early in the second quarter.

Melville was still leading 5-8 by half-time and remained in front 12-10 by three quarter-time, but by the time there was three minutes left in the game scores were tied at 14-14 following two quick goals for Applecross to Kelly Parks and Lara Zimmerman.

The Marlins regained the lead with 2:48 left with a penalty goal to Zoe Arancini but the draw was secured when Applecross scored last in general play thanks to Ebony Brown.

Kelly Parks finished with five goals for Applecross, Ebony Brown three, Sofia Chaves two, Brooke Pensini two and Lara Zimmerman two.

Zoe Arancini scored six goals for the Marlins, Chloe Nella three, Erin Redbond two and Luci Marsh two.

Arancini was given the three votes, Brown the two and Redbond the one.

Dolphins then took on the Phoenix and it was North Coast who worked on top early leading 4-1 to start the second quarter following a goal to Casey Rushforth.

That then became 9-2 by half-time and was 10-2 by three quarter-time with the only goal of the third period going to North Coast from Gemma Hadley with six seconds on the clock.

The Phoenix then scored the only six goals of the fourth quarter to end up winning 16-2.

Zoe Stenhouse scored four times for North Coast, Casey Rushforth three, Gemma Hadley three, Claire Rechichi two and Zoe Rowcroft two. Sinead Cockcroft and Alkira Remaj scored once each for Dolphins.

North Coast’s Stenhouse received the three votes and Rushforth two while Dolphins ‘keeper Lillian Hedges got the one.

And in the UWA Conference, it was two UWA City Beach teams locking horns with the Blues facing the Rangers. The Blues had lost to Triton to open the season while Rangers were playing their first game, and it was the Blues who made the fast start.

They scored the only three goals of the first quarter with goals to Audrey Poor, Pippa Pedley and Ella Fracaro. The Rangers did get on the board with the only two goals of the second term both courtesy of Madi Rigo.

City Beach pulled away again to lead 5-2 to start the second half with goals to Fracaro and Pedley. But the Rangers then got on a roll with three goals in the space of five minutes thanks to Neve Annett, Holly Rose and Rebecca Liddle to level scores.

The City Beach team pulled away, though, with the next five goals either side of three quarter-time to lead 10-5 and end up winning 11-6.

Ella Fracaro ended up scoring four goals for the City Beach Blues, Riley Davidson two, Pippa Pedley two and Glenda Morgan two. Holly Rose and Madi Rigo scored twice each for the Rangers.

Fracaro was awarded the three votes after the game, Alex Hughes from the Rangers two and Pedley one.

Round 3 of the Women’s Premier League will see Fremantle Conference matches on Saturday take place at Bicton Pool with Dolphins playing Applecross at 3.30pm before the Melville Marlins play North Coast Phoenix.

Then in the UWA Conference at Bicton Pool, the Rangers play Triton at 4pm.

PREMIER LEAGUE 2017-18 WOMEN’S COMPETITION RESULTS

ROUND 2 – Saturday October 21
Fremantle Conference
Applecross 15 drew with Melville Marlins 15
Dolphins 2 lost to North Coast Phoenix 16

UWA Conference
UWA City Beach Blues 11 defeated UWA City Beach Rangers 6