The Wagga girls were in a tense battle against Canberra Croatia in their NPL round two encounter at Rawlings Park on Sunday, conceding the first goal of the game.

Cochrane came off the bench midway through the first half and scored an equaliser before the break.

Then in a stunning second half the Wanderers opened up, and Cochrane made the opposition pay booting home four more.

"I was happy and excited," the striker said.

The Wagga High student has played soccer for seven years but this is her first season playing NPL.

"That was the first time I've scored five goals."

It was a first for coach Darren Surian too.

"At the full-time address I didn't know what to say. What do you say to someone that's scored five goals? Great job? I've never had it happen before, no. It was great," Surian said.

"Tamara played really well. A couple were good striker/poacher goals, pouncing on mistakes.

"The others were good team build-up, right from the back and working it up and she was in the right place at the right time."

Cochrane's teammates knew what to say at full-time.

"They said that I'm a legend," she said.

Jade Emms and Amity Wood were others to shine in the victory which gets the team's season off to a great start.

"It was a good win. We started off a bit slow being our first game of the season ... The second half they played really well," Surian said.

"I really wanted to get a win on the board because I thought if we lose this game, I didn't know where we sat."

In other junior games, Anisa Rees also kicked all her team's goals, in a 3-0 win for the Under 17 girls, while Alethea Levy scored four in the Under 13s' win.

In the boys' games, away to Monaro Panthers on Saturday, Daniel Okerenyang had a hat-trick in the Under 13s' 5-1 win. The Under 14s went down 4-1 while the 16s won 4-0.

All junior teams are at home this weekend.