'It's what we needed': Souths score Kevin Johnson Cup title

They faced the Moore Creek Mountain Goats in the last game of the day at the Gipps Street Playing Fields, after both sides progressed through the round matches undefeated.

The final itself proved to be a back-and-forth affair, in which both teams had shots on goal but neither could convert.

The game finished with the score still at nil-all, at which point the penalty shootout began to decide the champions.

Souths keeper, Lachlan Smith, had been in good form throughout the day and let no goals in prior to the shootout.

"I was pretty confident [ahead of the penalties]," Souths coach, Darrel Mole, said.

"Lachie's a good keeper, and the boys taking the penalties were real confident they could get them in. I'm a bit surprised it got that close to be honest, but Dean [Hoy, in goal for the Mountain Goats] is a great goalkeeper too.

"Penalty shootouts are always a gamble."

But Smith's reflexes were good enough to stifle four of Moore Creek's scoring attempts, while Hoy stopped three.

The 3-2 score in the penalties secured Souths a hard-earned win, which was also their first of any kind in a Premier League competition.

"This is their first piece of Premier League silverware," Mole said.

"They came into Premier League a couple of years ago, and our goal has been to work our way up. We're getting there, and I think we're well on the way."

Along with new medals around their necks, the win has also given the Souths players a huge boost of confidence ahead of the start of the regular season on April 29.

"It will pick the boys up and give them a lot of confidence," Mole said.

"It's what we needed to be honest, something to get them going, get them all on board and switched on. And that's not our First Grade side, so that makes us even happier.

"That's a mixture of our Reserve Grade and Firsts team."

The aspect of the tournament which pleased the coach almost as much as their title victory was their defence.

Souths did not conceded a goal all day until the penalty shootout in the final, which Mole said was indicative of their "quality side".

"Everyone put in today," he said.

"We had a clean slate ... as a coach, I look at the clean slate and think defensively we're very strong, which is great."

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