Sertorio’s Late Corner Keeps Perth Perfect — Thundersticks Edge Blaze 1-0 for Five from Five
Five games, five wins, and this was the hardest of the lot.
Perth Thundersticks’ women stayed perfect in Hockey One with a 1-0 win over Brisbane Blaze at Perth Hockey Stadium on Saturday. Jolie Sertorio scored the only goal of the game, a penalty corner in the 55th minute, and that was enough.
It was nothing like last week. Perth beat the Melbourne Cobras 4-0 in this same fixture slot seven days ago, and the goals flowed. This time Brisbane made them work for every inch. The Blaze came to Perth with a plan, sat in, and made the league leaders earn it. For 55 minutes, nothing separated the sides.
Then Sertorio stepped up. The corner came late, the kind of moment that decides tight games, and she buried it. No conversion followed, but none was needed. Perth’s defence, the best in the league, did the rest. Three goals conceded in five games. That’s the number that explains this team.
The win keeps Perth top of the women’s table on 15 points, five from five, with 14 goals scored and just three against. Brisbane stay sixth on five points, and they’ll take something from this too. They pushed the only unbeaten side in the competition all the way, and on another day the shootout would have been theirs to lose.
For our money, this is the result that tells you Perth are champions-elect rather than just in form. Anyone can win 4-0 when everything clicks. Winning 1-0, late, against a side that came to spoil, is what title-winning teams do. The Blaze found that out the hard way.
Round 5 closes on Sunday in Bendigo, where the Melbourne Cobras host Adelaide Fire and both sides are still chasing their first win. Perth’s women are next in action away to Canberra Chill on November 22.
The result is per the official match sheet.
