THE third last round of the VNL season saw some teams keep their dreams alive, while other sides had theirs crushed.

Express dodge Strikers in narrow win

The Booroondara Express escaped with a narrow win over the Bendigo Strikers to keep themselves ahead in the race for second spot.

The Express lead narrowly at the first change before the Strikers came out with force in the second term and levelled things up heading into the main break. Bendigo them came out with a vengeance in the third term, scoring 15-11 to take a lead heading into the last term, but were unable to maintain it until the end as the Express ultimately overpowered them in the dying minutes.

Hawks hurt Warriors to pick up important win

The Hawks also picked up a really important win in the context of their season, comfortably defeating the Warriors.

The tone was set early, with the Hawks racing out to a 17 goal to nine quarter time lead, and those in brown and gold were able to maintain that kind of margin and then grow it quarter on quarter for the rest of the evening.

Geelong withstand heat to down Blaze

Geelong has maintained pace with the top four after a 10 goal win over the North East Blaze, while hurting the Blaze’s hopes of a top two finish.

The Blaze actually got the better of the starts to take a narrow lead into quarter time, and grew it out to four goals by half time. However they were unable to maintain that lead after half time as Geelong came out and quickly dissolved the lead and took a narrow lead of their own into three quarter time, and extended it out even further in the last.

Flying Falcons keep on winning

The City West Falcons have kept on their winning ways, this time downing Melbourne Uni to end the Lightning’s faint finals hopes.

City West was already seven goals in front at quarter time, and that margin was out to 10 at the main break. The Lightning made a small dent in the lead in the third term, but it was to no avail as the Falcons just further extended it out in the final term.

Demons demolish Wave

In the sole match last night, the Casey Demons picked up a confidence-boosting win, downing the Peninsula Waves by 33 goals.

Things were much tighter than that early, but a 23 goal to 13 second quarter from the Dees changed the momentum of the game, and they never looked back from there.

VNL Round 20 Results

Boroondara (51) defeated Bendigo (49)

Hawks (71) defeated Western Warriors (51)

Geelong (59) defeated North East (49)

Melbourne Uni (52) lost to City West (65)

Peninsula (49) lost to Casey (82)

Bye – Southern Saints