The Victorian Bushrangers all-rounder snared 4-37 and smashed 113 as the Dragons claimed a two-wicket win at Avery’s Paddock in Port Fairy on Saturday.

The win allowed Northcote to climb off the bottom of the VPC ladder heading into a round-six clash against ladder-leader Fitzroy Doncaster this weekend.

Northcote coach David Reid said Stoinis’ performance, in his first VPC match for the season, reflected a cricketer at the top of his game.

Stoinis’ wickets helped restrict Melbourne University to 193 from 49.3 overs. But his efforts with the bat were more devastating.

He plundered six boundaries and one six during a 131-ball stay as Northcote reached the target for the loss of eight wickets.

His knock included 11 off one ball late in the run chase — he hit a no-ball for a boundary and followed up with a towering six off the “free hit” delivery.

“He’s a really classy player. I hope the people at Port Fairy enjoyed it,” Reid said.

“We think he can go on and play a lot of state cricket and who knows what else. He’s the sort of player who could go very high with his cricket.

“He’s very ambitious, he’s not backward in setting lofty goals and (international cricket) would definitely be on his radar.

“He wants to establish himself as a Victorian cricketer really quickly and put his best foot forward, he has a lot to offer.

“Australian cricket really values those guys who can bowl over 130 (kilometres an hour) and hit long cricket balls.”

Reid hoped the victory could be a turning point for the Dragons. They entered the annual country round with four consecutive defeats.

“We had dinner in Warrnambool on Friday night and as a group we said results hadn’t quite gone our way to date,” he said.

“But we thought we were moving in the right direction, we were pretty positive about things. (Country round) came at the right time.

“Guys really enjoyed getting away to the country but from a cricket point of view, it was an opportunity to kick off our season.

“That’s what we’ll look back on, this was the start of our 2014-15 season. We’ll go in with a bit of confidence next week.”

Stoinis, who has five centuries from his past 10 trips to the crease in VPC, wasn’t the only Northcote cricketer to fire at Port Fairy.

Opener Eric Ghasperidis made 36 and shared in an 87-run partnership with Stoinis after the dismissal of opener Matt Short for four.

They were crucial in defying Students tweakers Fawad Ahmed (3-32) and James Bett (0-40), who threatened all innings.

“Had their spin bowlers had exposure to our other batsmen, we might’ve found it difficult,” Reid said.

Earlier, Daniel Hutton (31), Mark Simpson (38) and Antony Keely (42) formed the backbone of the Students’ innings.