Hockey: Short-staffed Rotorua give hyped Otumoetai easy win

Cory Bruin scored in Baileys Otumoetai's 5-0 win over Rotorua Aces. Photo/File

Saturday's clash between defending Midlands Intercity champions Bayleys Otumoetai and last year's semifinalists Rotorua Aces was expected to be a close contest.

And if the Rotorua visitors to Tauranga Hockey Centre had prepared properly it may well have been.

But the Aces arrived to play in the scorching temperatures with no reserve players making their second half capitulation to lose 5-0 the easiest sports prediction of the weekend.

It was a disappointing scenario all round but at least the well-drilled Otumoetai team had a decent workout in the opening 35 minutes before the Aces ran out of cards to play.

Early on the visitors looked sharp on attack, with Midlands NHL player Tango Rangitauira and the talented Herewini brothers, Connor and Jury, having plenty of ball to play to test Otumoetai.

Tango should have put the Aces ahead when he cleverly went round the edges of the defence but was thwarted by a good save from NZ Masters keeper Geoff Williamson.

Otumoetai were resilient at the back, with Hugh Gilmour and Garrick du Toit dominant, but getting the ball into the goal proved to be difficult.

The opening goal finally came after Hayden Bruin, one of three brothers in action, produced a pin-point pass for Andrew Bingham to turn in for a 1-0 lead at the break.

The second goal came quickly after the restart, with Tyler Bruin doing the hard work to set up his brother Hayden for an easy finish.

Cory Bruin reacted quickly to a deflected back pass to make it 3-0 as the Aces struggled to keep up with the intensity of the Otumoetai attack, freshened by six replacements.

The Aces even tried a quarter field press but were powerless to stop a sweeping move that started deep in the Otumoetai half. Accurate passing from Gilmour and promising 15-year-old Liam Burn setting free the Bruin boys, with Hayden scoring his second goal.

Munro Stewart added a final goal to make it 5-0 but the Aces did have a late flurry forcing two consecutive penalty corners without any luck.

On the adjacent beach turf, Tauranga Old Boys were defeated by the Pukekohe Indians 4-3.

CMS Mount beat Onewhero from Pukekohe 3-2 (Dan Rae 2, Tom Hambrook 1).

Bayleys Otumoetai 5 (Hayden Bruin 2, Andrew Bingham, Cory Bruin, Munro Stewart) Rotorua Aces 0.