Hanwood continue unbeaten start to Pascoe Cup season with 2-0 win over Lake Albert

The Griffith powerhouse were prepared for their toughest challenge this season and responded by producing their best half of football for the year.

Hanwood were able to hit the scoreboard through Chaise Donato and Josh de Rossi and led 2-0 at half-time.

The Sharks lifted after the break but were unable to make any inroads as Hanwood maintained their unbeaten start and clean sheet after three rounds.

Hanwood coach Jason Bertacco was pleased to see his team rise to another level.

"Great result, we'll definitely take that coming up against Lake Albert," Bertacco said.

"We knew they were going to be up and about for the game. For years, we've always had big battles with them so we were ready for it so it was good, a good result.

"Our first half is probably the benchmark we're going to have to set for ourselves. We were really up and about and set the tone for the game and really put on a display from there. It was good."

Bertacco believes his team's pressure laid the platform for the rest of their game to function from there.

"Our pressure across the park, especially our front boys, they sent the tone for us in the first 10 minutes with the pressure they put on the Lake Albert backline," he said.

"That set the tone for the rest of the boys behind them to push along and the pride the boys are showing, they're all keen, they're all up and about at the moment, yes it's early in the year but they all want to be here and they all want to protect our goal.

"Yes there were stages where Lake Albert had some really good chances but the positive was it wasn't a one-on-one chance, we always had three, four blokes scrapping to get there to put extra pressure on."

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James Stockwell, Jaylen Gatto, Chris Zappala and keeper Hugo Banks all shone in the win over Lake Albert.

The win continued a strong start to the new year and Bertacco could not be happier with how things are tracking for his team.

"Yeah really happy. Obviously this was a step up, playing Lake Albert, and no offence to the other clubs," he said.

"We know there are going to be clubs that are going to be there and thereabouts at the end of the year and Lake Albert is going to be one of them.

"Coming over here for the second week in a row, we had three changes to the team from last week so we've got a big squad and we're lucky enough that we're able to make the changes and still put on a good performance like that, it's really positive for us."

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