Hockey: Otumoetai lose Marie Fry final

Sophie Samson brings the ball up strongly for Otumoetai College against Saint Matthew's Collegiate in the Marie Fry Trophy final played on Saturday. Photo / Andrew Warner

There was excitement on adjoining pitches at the Tauranga Hockey Centre as the Federation Cup secondary schoolgirls' tournament reached a climax on Saturday afternoon.

The final for premier schoolgirls teams took three periods of extra time to find a winner, as two players from each team were dropped at the end of each five-minute spell in an endeavour to reach an outcome. Following a scoreless game in regulation time, it took 12 minutes of extra time for Rangi Ruru School's striker Charlotte Arthur to score the winner against St Margaret's College.

The two Christchurch schools had survived the previous five days of matches to reach the final from 32 competing schools.

At the same time, a match was in progress on the adjacent turf where Tauranga Girls' College were playing Hamilton's Hillcrest High School, for third place in the Marie Fry Trophy for the second-tier teams.

In that game, following a 3-3 scoreline at full-time, no goals were scored in 15 minutes of extra time, and the match went to a penalty shootout to find a winner. Hillcrest won the shootout 5-4 to take out third place.

Earlier in the afternoon, Otumoetai College scored in the third minute in the Marie Fry Trophy final against St Matthew's Collegiate from Masterton but St Matthew's were too strong, winning 3-1.

Bethlehem College also required extra time to defeat Napier Girls High 2-1 in the play-off for 15th place in the premier Federation Cup division. Third place was taken by St Cuthbert's College from Auckland, who defeated Christchurch's Villa Maria College 1-0.

Marie Fry from Whakatane, a life member of the Central Bay of Plenty Hockey Association, presented the trophy named after her to the captain of the Hillcrest High School team.