Mounties have claimed their fifth victory of the season, overcoming the Wests Tigers 30-22 at Leichhardt Oval.
Zac Santo was incredible for the Mount Pritchard men, celebrating his birthday with a win and a fantastic performance, while Makahesi Makatoa had a massive game in the front row, scoring two tries.
The opening 10 minutes saw Mounties starved of attacking opportunity, but they didn’t let their first chance go to waste when they eventually gained field position, as Makatoa charged into a hole and crashed over for the first of his tries.
Mounties extended their lead into double figures when Eddie Aiono completed a beautiful right-to-left shift, before Dominic Reardon scored a fantastic try just five minutes later when a bomb was re-gathered and the ball went through the hands to push the margin out to 14.
The Tigers desperately needed to score next in order to stay in the game, and that’s exactly what they did through Esan Marsters-Siavale when back-to-back penalties earned them optimal field position.
In a bitter blow for the home side, Santo cut through the Tigers defence on the stroke of half-time, but due to three conversions being missed, Mounties only led 18-4 at the break despite scoring four tries.
Makatoa opened the scoring in the first half, and he did the exact same thing in the second when he crashed over under the posts for his second try of the afternoon.
At 24-4, it looked as though Mounties were going to run away with the game, but the Tigers refused to give up and mounted a comeback off the back of a Watson Heleta try.
With only 11 minutes remaining, the Tigers went back-to-back through Nathan Milone and Jordan Rankin in the space of three minutes, and suddenly it was a two-point ball game in the favour of Mounties.
However, all momentum was shut down when Reubenn Rennie pounced on a short kick and scored in the dying minutes, handing Mounties a 30-22 victory.
Mounties 30 (M Makatoa 2, E Aiono, D Reardon, Z Santo, R Rennie tries; I John 3 goals) def Wests Tigers 22 (E Marsters, W Heleta, N Milone, J Rankin tries; J Rankin 3 goals)
