The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs have recorded their seventh win of the season – and their first at Magic Round – with a 38-18 victory over the Gold Coast Titans.
It was a fast start by the Dogs, who scored two tries in the opening 11 minutes.
Toby Sexton set up the first try for Jacob Kiraz, who won the contest under the high ball to score in the fourth minute.
Connor Tracey then crossed untouched after Jacob Preston got a neat offload away as he was tackled.
The Titans responded with back-to-back tries, scored by Beau Fermor and Phillip Sami, but then were punished for repeated off-sides and Brian Kelly was sent to the bin.
Captain Stephen Crichton slotted a penalty goal to send his team into the half-time break with a 14-8 lead.
The boys in Blue and White came out firing in the second half, laying on three tries in 10 minutes to extend their lead to 32-8.
Kiraz scored two of them to seal a hat-trick, while Preston also got a well-deserved try.
The Titans weren’t done yet though with Fermor scoring his second of the game before Alofiana Khan-Pereira proved to be too quick as he capitalised off a Bulldogs error and took off down the field.
However they were again reduced to 12 men when Chris Randall was sin-binned for a professional foul after he interfered with Bronson Xerri in a tryscoring opportunity.
The Bulldogs then lost a player after Preston was binned for what was deemed to be a crusher tackle, but despite being one man down they celebrated the win with a late try to Reed Mahoney, who scored under the posts.
Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 38 (Kiraz 3, Tracey, Preston, Mahoney tries; Crichton 7/7 goals) def Gold Coast Titans 18 (Fermor 2, Sami, Khan-Pereira tries; Kelly 1/4 goals; field goals)
