THE Warilla-Lake South Gorillas have opened their accounts for the 2019 Group Seven season, by holding on to defeat the Nowra-Bomaderry Jets 16-14 at Cec Glenholmes Oval on Sunday.
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On a day where the Gorillas remembered the late Mark Roberts, they opened the match's scoring in the 11th minute five-eighth Daniel Burke dummied, stepped inside his defender and offloaded to his fullback Chad Lisch, who did the rest.
Burke converted to make it 6-nil.
The hosts continued to attack the right edge defence of the Jets and were rewarded in the 25th minute when Kayne Brennan finished off a quick exchange of hands.
Burke failed in his conversion attempt, as the score remained 10-nil.
The Gorillas made it three straight tries down that left edge when Lisch hit winger Dane Ford with a cut-out pass.
Burke added the extras from the sideline, as the Gorillas led 16-nil after 32 minutes.
The visitors finally had their first points in the 36th minute when fullback Tyson Simpson found winger Jake Gould with a perfectly weighted cut-out pass.
Five-eighth Josh Coulter failed to convert fro the sideline, as the score remained 16-4 until half-time.
Eight minutes after the break, the Jets had their second, following a cross-field bomb by Coulter.
Gorillas centre Tyson Brown diffused the kick but lost control in the in-goal, which saw Jets' Elliot Stewart pounce of the loose ball and score.
Coulter converted to make it 16-10.
The Jets close the gap even further when a dart out of dummy-half by Nathan Deaves put Coulter into space, before the latter dived over to score in the right corner.
Coulter failed to convert his own try, leaving the host with a slender two-point lead, with 20 minutes to play.
But despite their best efforts in the final quarter of the game, the Jets couldn't hit the front, as the Gorillas held on to secure Hans Schuster and Craig Stapleton their first win at the helm.
Looking ahead, in round three, Dylan Farrell's Jets will host the Stingrays at the Nowra Showground while the Gorillas travel to the Berry Showground at clash with the Magpies.