College Sport: Iona College top pool

Luke Morgan lines up another shot at goal for HBHS in their 3-1 loss to St Peter's College. Photo/Warren Buckland .

A dislocated knee to key defender Allie Chesterman provided motivational ammunition for Iona College as they completed section play unbeaten at the National Secondary Schoolgirls' hockey tournament in Hawke's Bay yesterday.

"It was an unfortunate incident and it happened 10 minutes into the game. Allie is out for the rest of the tournament. The girls placed her stick behind our goal and dedicated the match to her ... it was our best team performance so far," Iona manager David Nancarrow said as he reflected on his team's 3-0 win against Waikato Diocesan in Hastings.

Striker Bella Greig, Olivia Shannon and Lexie Heaphy, the daughter of coach Jono Heaphy, scored Iona's goals. By finishing top of their section Iona qualified for a top 16 match against Hamilton Girls' High School in Napier at 10am today.

"Hamilton Girls are well-known to us. We stayed in the same motel at a national tournament two years ago and they came to our Festival of Hockey tournament here in the Bay earlier this year," Nancarrow explained.

Napier Girls' High School also qualified for the top 16 after drawing 1-all with Otumoetai College and losing 2-1 to Auckland Diocesan yesterday. They will meet Queen Margaret College of Wellington in Hastings at 11.30am today.

Hannah Cotter scored the only goal for NGHS against Otumoetai. The hosts created numerous other opportunities in the Park Island encounter but couldn't convert them.
Goalie Emily Boyle and right half Ruby Roberts performed well for NGHS. Captain and striker Sophie Nation scored the team's only goal against Auckland Diocesan.
Midfielders Kaitlin Cotter and Rileigh Knapp shone in the loss.

Woodford House lost 4-0 to Auckland Diocesan and 2-1 to Otumoetai College and finished section play winless. They will begin their Marie Trophy (bottom 16) campaign today.

■ Napier Boys' High School will play Nelson College in their 11.15am quarterfinal in Napier today at the national secondary schools premier soccer tournament.

Yesterday the Marty Akers-coached team beat Westlake Boys 2-1 and Scots College 4-2.
Napier City Rovers Central League player Jorge Akers scored both goals against Westlake Boys who scored their goal during the final three minutes of the game. Midfielders Josh Murphy and Ethan Martin joined Akers as the pick of the Napier players in this game.

Against Scots Napier made a sensational start and led 1-0 after 20 seconds and 3-1 at halftime during a polished team effort. Hastings Boys' High School coach Grant Hastings said luck wasn't on his troops side during their 2-0 loss to Wairarapa's Rathkeale College and 3-1 loss to St Peter's College of Cambridge.

They will playoff in the 25-32 bracket from today.

Meanwhile a tournament judiciary committee has upheld a referee's decision to halt a game prematurely on Monday amid fears for safety of players.

The committee made the decision after Mt Albert Grammar (Auckland) and Rathkeale College lodged reports after the former appealed the ref's ruling to send off three of their players from the field on the opening day of the tourney.
Those players, who collected two yellow cards each (equalling a red one for a send off), served a match suspension yesterday.
Both teams had breached tournament protocols, tourney controller Greg Kettle told Wairarapa Times-Age last night.

"Mt Albert Grammar were sent a letter regarding the conduct of their management and a Rathkeale manager was also warned for going on to the field of play," Kettle said, after the 2-all result on Monday.

Mt Albert lost again yesterday to miss the top-16 cut while Rathkeale have qualified top of their pool to advance through to the top 16, he said.

■A quality field is ready to contest the New Zealand Age Group Golf Championships which begin in Hawke's Bay today.

The hosting of this prestigious event will be shared by the Hastings club where the 14 to 18-year-old boys will play, with the girls and under 13 boys to be played at the Hawke's Bay club.

This strokeplay event was first played in 1962 and since then, the names on the NZ U19 trophy include the likes of Greg Turner (1981), Michael Campbell (1987), Michael Long (1988), Adam Scott (1996), Steven Bowditch (2000) and Jason Day (2004) who illustrate that this is a great stepping stone event on the golf pathway.

With the recent success of Christchurch' Boys High School who won the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championship on Monday, Tom Parker has become a hot favourite after leading his side to victory with a seven-under par final round.