Vaugan Hilton reporting for Waikato Hockey:
Storage King University secured top spot on the Women’s Premier Hockey Table with a thrilling 8-5 victory over Fraser Tech White. The students grabbed an early lead with back to back goals from Jess Turner and Natasha Jacques in the opening five minutes. Goals kept flowing for the students as they raced to a 5-1 half time advantage with goals to Brooke Neal, Olivia Scotland and a second for Turner with a late reply just before the break to Tech’s Chloe Nesbitt. Nesbitt reduced the deficit immediately after the break with a rifling reverse but Turner responded to secure a hat trick and restore University’s four goal lead. Nesbitt was on hand to secure her third and Deborah Yung converted a PC to reduce the deficit to just two in a remarkable comeback. University stepped it up a notch once again with both Scotland and Neal adding to their first half goals to wrest back the advantage. Yung was once again deadly accurate with a low driven PC strike to complete the scoring in a highly entertaining game. Tech White remained in third spot and will play the vastly improved Te Awamutu side in next week’s semi final. Ecolab Te Awamutu completed the round robin with a 4-1 victory over the winless Hamilton Old Girls to secure second whilst University will play Tech Blue who downed McWhannell Roofing Suburbs 2-0. Tech took 50 minutes to breach the Suburbs defense but two goals in the last quarter to Alex Lukin and Anzel Viljeon were enough to seal 4th spot.
In Men’s matches Fraser Tech and Old Boy’s clashed in a top of the table match that never reached any great heights. Old Boys held a slender half time lead through a Troy Smith goal but Tech secured the draw through Jimmy Linehan. Both sides finished equal on 13 points but Tech’s superior +24 goal difference edged Old Boys into second. Tech will take on CKL Suburbs who were lucky to survive a do or die match up against Ecolab Te Awamutu. Suburbs grabbed the early advantage through Michael Scanlon but their lead was short lived when Patrick Wilson restored parity. Ben Coxhead gave Te Awamutu the lead early into the second half and with a win needed to secure Te Awamutu their first semi’s spots the game became more physical than technical. The umpires had their hands full keeping emotions in check issuing cautions to both sides as Suburbs searching for the all important equalizer. Daniel Scanlon found an opening through an otherwise tight Te Awamutu defense with a cracking reverse strike to level the scores at 2 all. Te Awamutu threw caution to the wind in search of the winner but Suburbs goal tender Dean Armstrong remained calm in front of his posts to thwart several late opportunities and one shot that managed to beat him was brilliantly saved off the line by a defender. Suburbs will now meet Tech in next week’s semi after the 2 all draw was enough to secure fourth spot. Old Boys’ will meet CBD University who made light work of their 6-0 win over their Admore University Reserve side. Nick Trebilcock scored a brace with Jitesh Sima, Craig Hardman, Kyle Ostenfeld, and Jayvant Dhanjee also converting.
Note: the Finals will be played a fortnight after the semi’s due to Waikato’s hosting of the Regional Girls Under 18 Rep Tournament