Te Puke Utd's women wrap up Bay title in style

Te Puke Utd's title winning women's team.

Te Puke United Women's team played its last game of the season on Sunday when they hosted bottom placed Ōtumoetai.

With the Bay of Plenty league title already under its belt, the team was hoping for a good result to finish the season on a high.

It would also be a great send off for long-serving Te Puke player Tessa Blaymires, who has played for the Black and Whites for 25 years.

Blaymires would have played over 500 games for her one and only club, also representing the Bay Team in the late 90s in Auckland, Wairarapa and Christchurch.

The game started in windy conditions and the home side faced the strong wind in the first half. The match was fairly even but United were doing most of the attacking, forcing plenty of corners and having plenty of shots at the visitors' goal.

The livewire strike force of Sammi Parish and the ever-improving Boh Harris were causing plenty of trouble for the Ōtumoetai defence, with the central midfield pairing of Ashley Weld and Jessie McIndoe and wide players Chynna Davie and Ellie Hansen in total control.

In the 15th minute, leading scorer Parish put the home side in front with a well placed right foot shot from just inside the 18yd box.

The away side put a bit of pressure on the Te Puke defence, but it was well kept under control by a solid goalkeeper Swantje Mettenleiter and a back four of Irene Taylor, Blaymires and centre backs Talia Hope and Jamie Filmer.

Te Puke doubled the lead in the 47th minute when Parish scored from a header after a well delivered corner by Jessie McIndoe.

The Te Puke side was becoming more dominant and it wasn't long before it was three in the 51st minute, Chynna Davie cut in from the left and made no mistake with a strong left foot shot.

Both wide players were seeing plenty of ball, and Davie and Hansen on the right were in behind the defence on plenty of occasions.

In the 62nd minute it was time for Weld to get on the score sheet after a good one-two with striker Harris, saw her smash home to make it 4-0.

Four minutes later her midfield partner McIndoe made it five and it was six soon after when Weld let fly from long range and put the ball in the top right hand corner of the goal giving the away team's keeper no chance.

It was a cracking effort that rounded off a wonderful performance for the Black and Whites.

Finishing the season with a goals against tally of just five while scoring 69 and winning the league title while losing just once, made coach Willie Warbrick very proud.

It was an emotional time for the women and everyone involved with the club sending Blaymires off in the best possible way.

The team would like to thank all the sponsors and supporters for a great season, especially Leigh and Miriam from Anann Pineapple Bar in Te Puke and Mark from Complete Car Glass.

The women's next mission is an end of season party and the Tauranga Women's tournament in October.