Hockey: Springfield remain dominant

Kaitlin Alters (Springfield) and Dayna Attwood (Hikurangi) compete for the ball.

The Springfield women's hockey team have had a strong start to the season and confirmed their position with a dominant 8-1 win over Hikurangi on Saturday.

The defending champions came into the match looking for their third win of the season and quickly took the lead in the first quarter against Hikurangi.

Stand-in Springfield coach Angeline Waetford said her game plan was to expose weaknesses in the opposition's defence.

"When we were in our attacking third I asked the team to put their defence under pressure and we turned a lot of ball over there," she said.

Hikurangi got one back to go into half-time at 3-1, but quick passing tactics from the Springfield side saw them add another five goals in the second half.

"We moved the ball really well, left to right quickly, and got in behind their defence," Waetford said.

Waetford was impressed with the young strikers in her team: "I gave them a couple of things I wanted them to try and they tried it, and a couple of them scored goals by doing it."

Springfield remain in second on the table just one point behind leaders Old Girls.

In other premier women's matches, Mangapai put up a good fight but went down 2-0 to Whangarei Girls' High School while Old Girls secured top of the table with a 3-1 win over Maungakaramea.

In the premier men's grade, Maungakaramea beat Bream Bay 10-1 on Friday while and Springfield held Mangapai to a nil-all draw on Saturday.