WAGGA Water Polo claimed its first-ever NSW Junior Country Club Championships gold medal after Wagga Green held their nerve to win the under-14s final after a tense penalty shootout against Central Newcastle.
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Down 9-8 with 30 seconds left, a goal from Toby Gould leveled the match at full-time at Oasis Aquatic Centre on Sunday.
Both teams nailed their first four penalty shots, before Central Newcastle's fifth attempt sailed over the goal to hand Wagga victory after an unbeaten campaign.
It was the highlight of a brilliant weekend for the hosts, with Wagga Green also claiming silver in the under-14 girls after going down 14-1 to Albury's Pool Pirates in their final.
Wagga's under-16 girls narrowly missed a podium finish after losing the bronze medal match 6-3 to Gosford.
Under-14 boys Wagga Green coach Damien Maloney was proud with his team's execution under pressure.
"I came into the comp thinking we had a handy side and I knew we had a good attacking team, but defensively we started off slow and built our defence as we went along," he said.
"We put in an untried line-up for the penalty shootout, it was good to see a couple of our younger players step up.
"They held their nerve well, a couple of guys in our team are fairly experienced and you could see them talking to the others and settling them down.
"It's massive for Wagga water polo to make gold medal matches in both the boys and girls, it says a lot for the calibre of kids we've got coming through."
In the under-16s Wyong Rats won the girls final 8-2 over Nordek and Barbarians accounted for Nordek in the boys 13-5.
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