PARKES has shown a glimpse of why they have been one of Group 11’s perennial contenders in recent years, running in 12 tries in a 66-10 demolition of Dubbo Westside at Caltex Park on Sunday.
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Star halves Dennis Moran (3) and Alex Prout (2) combined for five of the tries as the Spacemen blew the game wide open early.
Prout opened the scoring in just the third minute before Moran got into the action four minutes later, and when Ethan McKellar cross for the first of his double in the 15th minute the Spacement were going at a point a minute.
Sam Coe, who bagged both of Westside’s tries, went over in the 17th minute but from that point on it was all Parkes.
Moran crossed in the 28th and 37th minutes, with those tries back up by four-pointers to hooker Joss Cleal and centre Luke Clarke as the visitors went into half-time with a 40-6 advantage.
When Jake Porter and Prout each crossed inside the opening 10 minutes of the second half things looked likely to get out of hand, but to their credit Westside kept giving.
Robbie Dunn’s men forced the Spacemen into some errors, and combined with a drop in intensity from Parkes the match deteriorated from that time on.
Coe’s second try came as a result of a 70m burst to bring the score to 52-10 but three tries in the final 10 minutes to replacement Jay Slavin, McKellar and winger George Wright Jnr helped the Spacemen’s for-and-aganist.
The win moves Parkes from fifth to fourth on the competition ladder, and Prout said it is a sign the team is heading in the right direction.
“We’re starting to get guys back from injury and all on the field at the same time,” he said.
“I thought our first half out there today was pretty good, and we completed our sets and scored points when the opportunities came our way.
“In the second half we drifted in and out of the game, which we’ll need to work on for when we play against other sides.
“It’s a big win for us looking forward to hopefully making the finals and the good thing was we were able to put some points on the board and boost our for-and-against a bit because it’s the worst of those teams fighting for spots.”
Parkes’ next assignment will be against Narromine next weekend while Westside have a local derby against Dubbo CYMS.
- PARKES SPACEMEN 66 (Dennis Moran 3, Alex Prout 2, Ethan McKellar 2, Joss Cleal, Jake Porter Luke Clarke, Jay Slavin, George Wright tries; Clarke 9 goals) def DUBBO WESTSIDE 10 (Sam Coe 2 tries; Paul Jones goal)
