Hockey: Mavericks still in hunt for final after rout

Hawke's Bay's Dylan Thomas (green) scored twice against Northland last night. Photo / John Stone

The Central Mavericks kept their Ford National Hockey League final hopes alive with a 10-0 demolition of Northland in Whangarei last night.

Martin Atkinson scored a hat-trick for Central and the Hawke's Bay pair of Dylan Thomas and Brennan Alexander-Parker, along with Matt Young, scored two goals each.

Central were dominant from the opening whistle and scored four goals in the first half before running riot with another six in the second.

With one pool game remaining Central are third on the points table, one behind second-placed Canterbury who are four points behind North Harbour.

North Harbour beat Canterbury 2-1 last night.

The other men's fifth round game saw Midlands beat Capital Cobras 2-1.

In the women's section, Northland recorded their first win of the tournament beating the Central Mysticks 3-2. Samantha Polovnikoff stole the show with two quality goals while Neve McLean added a third for the hosts. Captain Michaela Curtis and Pippa Norman netted for Central.

The Canterbury Cats jumped to the top of the table on 13 points after a tight 1-0 win over North Harbour.

It was a match which saw both sides perform well defensively with Hannah Hill's 14th-minute field goal proving the crucial blow.

The Cats are sitting pretty in number one spot with two round-robin games still to play, while North Harbour are nipping at their heels but have a bye in Round 7 on Friday.

Midlands consolidated fourth place on 10 points following a straightforward 4-0 victory against Capital thanks to a commanding second half.

Capital struggled to build any momentum and couldn't contain the attacking game of Midlands, with Kate Kernaghan and Amy Robinson both scoring doubles.