REIGNING premiers Shellharbour returned to the winner's circle on Saturday, with a convincing 34-22 win against Berry-Shoalhaven Heads at Ron Costello Oval.
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Coming off a loss to Jamberoo and draw with Nowra-Bomaderry, the hosts were desperate to get their title defence back on course, but it didn't show as the visitors scored within the opening three minutes.
A darting run by hooker Blake Dryden put Joe Rogers into space before he planted down the ball with his right hand.
Five-eighth Ingold converted to make it 6-nil.
Four minutes later though, the Sharks responded - a Nick Greenhalgh cross-field bomb was taken by Callan Sinclair, who offloaded to Deejay Harris to score in the right corner.
Matt Carroll's missed sideline conversion saw Berry hold onto a two-point lead.
In the 16th minute, the Sharks had their first lead of the afternoon, when Jack Kavanagh strolled over under the sticks, following a sharp pass from Kiran Tranter.
Carroll then stretched the lead to four with his first conversion of the afternoon.
The Sharks had their tails up now and added a third soon after, when Harris stepped his defender, offloaded to Sinclair, who then drew Berry fullback Jared Bowley before passing to his custodian Tam Ulukita.
Carroll's conversion made it 16-6.
But the lead was quickly evaporated bu quick tries to Berry's Evan O'Shea and Ingold, which saw the scores level at 16-all at the break.
The Sharks regained the lead eight minutes after the resumption with Liam Ryan burst onto an inside pass from Tranter.
Carroll added the extras and it was 22-16.
An in and out step and pass from Carroll to Dane Sabolwski set up 17-year-old debutant Ethan O'Connell to score the hosts' fifth try in the 56th minute.
The skipper Carroll couldn't added the extras and it remained 26-16.
Three minute later, Sinclair was the first to pounce of a deft kick through by Greenhalgh to score - which again wasn't converted by Carroll.
Dryden and Rogers again combined for the Magpies, helping the latter score his second for the match and with Ingold's conversion, the lead was cut to eight.
But the match was iced in the 73rd minute when a cheeky inside pass by Carroll saw Donte Efaraimo run through a gaping hole to score.
Carroll found his kicking boots once again and converted to make it 36-22 at full-time.