Fraser D’Agostino emerged as the hero for the Devils on the weekend, scoring his first hat-trick at senior level to help his side to a 5-2 win over Boomers.

Back on their home deck on Sunday after almost a month on the road, Wangaratta were hot favourites to do the deed over the lower-ranked Boomers, but were almost immediately on the back foot after Boomers’ Max Lynch scored in the 14th minute.

D’Agostino equalised in the 32nd minute, after a sterling one-one-one with the keeper, but the Devils were lacking across the park, until a half-time rev-up saw them explode into the second half.

Wangaratta came alive after, creating plenty of chances, one of which D’Agostino capitalised on, tapping an easy one in at the back post from a cross.

The Devils looked on top of the contest, but were brought back to parity through Boomer Bukuru Amini (68’).

The battle recommenced, but from the 80th minute onward, it was all Wangaratta all the time.

Lorenzo Cecchini (82’) and Justin Cirillo (83’) got on the scoresheet, but the day belonged to D’Agostino, bombing one into the top corner from 30 yards out to secure his first senior hat-trick in the 94th minute.

Coach Vitaly Leschen said the response after half-time was impressive to see.

“The first half was fairly even, but I wasn’t very happy with how we came out in the first half,” he said.

“In the second half, we came out with much more intensity, much higher pressure, wanting to take the game to them instead of sitting back and waiting for them to make a mistake.

“At the end of the day, as the game wore on, we were able to run over the top of them and bag the three goals.

“It was good to see when we scored the first one to make it 3-2, even though it was fairly late on we didn’t sit back on that lead, we went out and got two more quick goals and put the game to bed.

“It’s that transition from where we were as a team and where we’re trying to get to as a team.

“Being in winning positions isn’t something we’ve been used to, and perhaps previously our mentality was to hang onto what we’ve got instead of go.

“After last weekend’s game, we’ve changed – the message to the boys was ‘let’s change that, let’s make it 5-2 instead of 3-2’.

“It worked out well on the weekend, so hopefully we can carry that going forward.”

Leschen had nothing but praise for D’Agostino, who was fast becoming an important cog in their machine.

“He’s a very talented winger, very good on the ball, and a very dangerous player from anywhere in the box,” he said.

“A bunch of those young boys work extremely hard on their game both at training and outside of training, so it’s nice they’re getting reward for it.

“I think what we’re trying to do is add the pressure to him and the expectation onto him as the season progresses, not necessarily changing the gameplan, but just making clear he has the talent to do this often.

“He’s 17, but we’re going from treating him as a 17-year-old to treating him as a talented player who can really impact every game he plays in if he wants to.

“The message to him is keep in games, understand how good he is, and hopefully work on the mentality where he wants to make everyone know how good he is.”

The Devils sit fifth on the division one men’s ladder, just a point behind fourth-placed Albury Hotspurs.