The Southern Saints have defeated Casey Demons in a thriller at Casey Fields on Sunday afternoon.

Tara Bohanna was the hero for the Saints as she kicked two goals in the last four minutes to set up the 1.6(12) to 3.5(23) win.

Poppy Kelly was influential in the ruck, winning multiple hit outs and even clunking a mark on the last line of defence. Kate Shierlaw looked good when she got the ball and Samantha Johnson read the play well in defence taking a few intercept marks.

It was the Saints who kicked the first goal of the game, when Caitlin Greiser was awarded a free kick and made no mistake slotting the ball through the big sticks on the 6th minute.

For the rest of the first quarter it was the Demons who were doing all the attacking, but to the Saints’ credit the defence held firm and went into the first break with the only goal.

The Demons continued their attacking onslaught early in the second, but some back to back intercept marks by Johnson and Jacqui Vogt stopped the rot.

For the last few minutes of the term the Saints had multiple inside 50 entries, but by the time the main break arrived they had four behinds to show for it as the Demons went scoreless with the scores 0.1(1) to 1.4(10).

The third term proved to be a testing one for the Saints as the Demons continued to mount pressure.

The Saints suffered an an injury blow when Deanna Jolliffe had to be carried off the ground and could take no further part. Strong marks by Shierlaw and Kelly in defence late in the third, denied the home side a scoring chance.

A Demons goal late in the quarter meant the deficit was cut to three points.

The Saints locked the ball in their attacking 50 for the remainder of the quarter, but went into the last break with a three point advantage as the Saints went scoreless.

The intensity ramped up in the fourth, with both sides giving everything. Scores were level midway through the quarter when the Demons kicked three behinds.

The Saints later regained the lead with three minutes left to play, when Bohanna slotted her first after she was awarded a free kick. Bohanna then slotted her second of the afternoon after the siren to hand the Saints an 11 point win.

Coach Peta Searle said she was impressed with how the team applied themselves when the game was on the line.

“Defensively our back six stood up quite well, our midfielders managed to put enough pressure in so there wasn’t clean ball going in,” she said.

“I guess when it mattered in the last five minutes we had a bit more composure and played to our strengths a lot more, and the players played to their own strengths.”

The Saints have a week off before they play Melbourne University and it’s one that Searle is looking forward to.

“Melbourne University will be a good contest because they have a lot of North Melbourne players running around,” she said.

“We all know the talent on that North Melbourne list so it will be really good to see where our girls are at against a quality opposition.”