By LIAM TWOMEY
DEER Park bounced back from its first loss of the WRFL season and showed rivals it is still the team to beat heading into September.
The Lions defeated reigning premier Altona by 28 points on Saturday in a clash between the top two teams in division one.
Deer Park didn’t have things all its own way though and was forced to fight hard during a tough first half.
Marc Bullen’s side trailed Altona by seven points at the first break but hit back to lead by two at half time.
From there the Vikings were completely shut down defensively and unable to kick a goal in the second half.
At the other end of the ground, the Lions booted four goals in the final hour of play to run away with the 11.11 (77) to 7.7 (49) win.
On a day where scoring was difficult, Deer Park was well led on its forward line by big man Chris Stewart who kicked three goals.
He received good support from Shaun Buttigieg-Clarke, Steven White and Kwame Mcharg who all kicked two.
From Altona, Mitchell Turnbull was the only Viking who was able to create some scoreboard pressure and finished with three goals while gun forward Jayden Post kicked one.
Saturday’s result means Altona drop out of the division one top two with Spotswood moving into second spot on the ladder.
The Vikings are equal on wins with the Woodsmen but sit 37 percentage points behind them.
The Lions remain in first place with just one loss for the season.
When round 14 gets underway this weekend, Deer Park will take on Albion while Altona will meet Port Melbourne.
Also in the WRFL, Spotswood overcame the dangerous St Albans by 67 points.
In what was a tough contest for the first three quarters, the Woodsmen blew the game open in the final term with eight goals.
In other division one results, Albion smashed North Footscray, Sunshine accounted for Port Melbourne and Hoppers Crossing got the better of Yarraville.
