By Tara Murray
North Sunshine Eagles claimed its first points in the Victorian Premier League 1 competition with a dominant second half performance against Caroline Springs George Cross.
After a loss in round one, the Eagles took on their old rivals, the Georgies on Saturday afternoon at Larissa Reserve.
The Eagles opened the scoring in the 34th minute and led by that goal at half time.
Hayden Tennant, one of the off season signings, doubled the score in the 50th minute while Ndue Mujeci scored a penalty in extra time for the Eagles to come away with a 3-0 win.
Speaking before the game, coach Ben Isai said the side was keen for this season.
The Eagles won the VPL2 title last season and earned promotion for this year.
“It is a new challenge, one definitely looking forward to it,” he said. “We’re looking forward to the rest of the season
“We’re happy to be in VPL1.”
Isai said they had a similar squad to last season, but like all teams had made some changes.
He said they added four or five signings to boost their squad and replace players who had departed.
Tennant was one of the bigger signings, crossing from Pascoe Vale. He was previously vice-captain of National Premier League side Hume City.
Japanese national Keima Kitazaw has added to the Eagles attack, brothers Birhan an Kaan Elibol have also both played with Hume City have joined the club.
Ruben da Silva has joined the club from Green Gully, while Peter Lay has moved from Altona City.
The Eagles have also looked to add some more youth to the squad.
“We’ve added four or five boys from the academies of VPL clubs to boost the squad,” Isai said.
“We’ve been looking at these guys for a few years. Some have come straight into the program for the first match day squad and come on.”
Having only come up this season, expectations are a little bit of an unknown in terms of position.
Isai said the focus was to try and win every match.
“We’ll try and win every game and see where it leaves us,” he said of expectations. “We want to try and be competitive across 26 weeks.
“We felt like in the first game the pressure was there. There’s a fine line and while we were really happy with it, we’re there to win games.”
Isai said the success of last season had really helped boost things around the club and everything was looking really good including their junior program.
In other results, Western United beat Kingston City, 4-0.
In NPL results, Green Gully had a 1-1 draw with Oakleigh Cannons and St Albans Saints lost to Altona Magic, 2-1.
Melbourne Knights were set to be in action on Monday night against South Melbourne, after deadline.
