Hockey: Fourth quarter brace helps Maungakaramea to win

Mangapai's Ethan Codlin at full stretch getting past his defender. Photo/John Stone

A couple of quick goals in the fourth quarter secured a 4-2 win for Maungakaramea over Mangapai in their premier men's hockey match on Saturday.

Mangapai scored first in the game when they converted a penalty corner opportunity but the teams were evenly matched throughout.

After getting a couple of goals back to take a 2-1 lead, it was at the start of the fourth quarter that Maungakaramea put the nail in the coffin.

"We had a good little period where we managed to get a couple of goals in and swing the momentum," Maungakaramea player/coach Sam Webb said.

Coming into the fourth quarter focused on playing their own game plan, Maungakaramea used slick passing to link up in attack and managed to score two goals within five minutes to push the score to 4-1.

Webb added "it certainly wasn't our best game of hockey but we had patches of real good hockey and then some patches of real bad hockey."

"We were missing a few key players but James Houston played in the middle and he probably had the best game I've seen him play in a fair few years, so it's good that when some of those key players aren't here someone steps up," Webb said.

In the other premier men's match, Whangarei Boys' High School left it late to claim a draw with competition front runners Springfield.

With just 35 seconds left on the clock, Boys' High nipped home the equaliser to claim a share of the competition points.

In the premier women's competition, a partially flooded turf didn't stop Maungakaramea on Friday night as they beat Mangapai 11-0.

In the Saturday matches, Old Girls beat Whangarei Girls' High School 5-2 and Springfield beat Hikurangi 7-1.