Poverty Bay sides reach finals

FINALISTS: The Poverty Bay under-13 girls’ hockey team reached their final in the Noel Morrow/Mini Tupara Tournament in Whakatane on Sunday. The team and support personnel are, back (from left): manager Va Batisaresare, Alesha Batisaresare, Zoe Robinson, Katie Bennett, Anahera Whaanga-Smith, Kelsey Teneti and coach Louise Teneti. Middle: goalie Azahlia Nickerson, Cate Hills, Jessie Kapene, Sasha Fergus, Patricia Taumata-Albert and Jayha Egan. Front: Shekinah Hongara, McKenzie Pepere and Charlie Brown. Picture supplied

POVERTY Bay under-13 boys’ and girls’ hockey sides both reached the finals of the Noel Morrow/Mini Tupara Tournament in Whakatane on Sunday.

The boys lost to Tauranga A in their final, although the score at fulltime was 0-0.

Tournament rules stated a drawn final would be decided on the number of penalty corners awarded. Tauranga had one penalty corner, Poverty Bay had none, so Tauranga took the silverware.

The girls also faced a Tauranga A side in the final.

After being a goal down, Poverty Bay levelled the score, but Tauranga grabbed the winner in the last few minutes.

Both boys’ and girls’ sides showed the benefits of regular play on artificial turf.

In preliminary games, the Poverty Bay boys beat Tauranga Development 1-0 and Bay of Plenty A 1-0.

That took them into the final against the higher-ranked Tauranga A side.

The Poverty Bay girls beat Tauranga Development 1-0, then had a 0-0 draw with the Bay of Plenty. To break the deadlock, the teams played added time with players being taken off at regular intervals. When both sides had only five players left on the pitch (down from 11 a side) Poverty Bay scored the “golden goal” to take them into the final against Tauranga A.

Teams at the tournament were: Tauranga A, Tauranga Development, Central Bay of Plenty, Bay of Plenty A, BoP Development and Poverty Bay.

The Poverty Bay girls have a mini-tournament in Hawke’s Bay late this month, then the Rawleigh Tournament early in October.

The boys will head to a mini-tournament in Levin late this month and then go to the Curtis Cup in Palmerston North early in October.