Falcons Savour Fairytale Finish

Courtesy of the Sunshine Coast Daily / By Mitchell Dale

SUNSHINE Coast Falcons winger Kris Boyce lived out a football fairytale yesterday, scoring a try on full-time before booting a goal from the sideline to give his team a last-gasp victory over Redcliffe at Dolphin Oval.

The Falcons-Dolphins clash was a corker, with the lead changing five times throughout the match and twice in the last six minutes. Sunshine Coast led 22-12 halfway through the second half, but Redcliffe clawed its way back and snatched a lead 26-22 with six minutes to go.

But on the last play of the match, Falcons five-eighth Rohan Molineux chipped across field for interchange forward Grant Cannell who outleapt the Dolphins defence before flicking an off-load to Boyce who touched-down as the full-time hooter sounded in the background.

That levelled the scores and it was left to Boyce to make a hero of himself.

The 22-year-old calmly slotted the goal to spark wild scenes of jubilation from the Falcons.

"There was nothing really going through my head, I just wanted to make sure I got it," Boyce said about the moment that will go down in Falcons folklore.

"But when all the Redcliffe fans started hitting the fences trying to put me off it fired me up and I thought 'Righto, I'm going to get this'. That will be a bit of a highlight for me now."

While Boyce stole the show, there were plenty of other heroics from Falcons including: * Prop Cameron Boaza getting strapped up like a Mummy and returning to the field after having a Grand Canyon-like gash open up on the top of his head

* Hooker Clint Broomham, who was one of the Falcons?? best, playing the final five minutes in agony after suffering a suspected rib cartlidge injury

* Lock Kevin Cook playing the entire match with a pulled muscle in his hip

* The whole team digging deep to keep Redcliffe out for three consecutive sets of six in the latter stages of the match.

"That just shows heart," Allen said of the heroics. "You can't coach that in players. It makes me proud as a coach, everybody that goes out there has a go."

The fact his side didn't panic in the final minutes was another pleasing aspect for Allen.

"I think they're finally starting to learn that anything can happen in 60 seconds," he said.

"They didn't panic at the end. I honestly think that if a coach has got a side that can win the game in the last five or 10 minutes, he's got a bloody good side.

"We didn?'t play our best today, but there's just that will to win.?

Redcliffe scored six tries to four, with Boyce's boot giving the Falcons the edge.

"The good thing about Redcliffe's tries was that most of them were scored out wide, so it means our middle is tight,? Allen said.

"They closed them up the guts nearly all game. They scored a lot of tries from kicks, good kicks, but that was also because they weren't getting through us.?

It wasn't such good news for the Falcons Colts, who out-played Redcliffe but lost 25-24 after a late field goal.