Whangarei Girls' High School's coach was pleased with the way her team stepped up and worked together to get a 3-1 win over rivals Mangapai in their reserve A women's hockey match.
Mangapai have had the wood on the school team this season, winning both their previous matches but Girls'High coach Lucy de Pass said her team stuck to the game plan and were able to score some good goals to get the win this time around.
"We were doing lots of nice linking and passing, which is in our game plan, and we stuck to it," de Pass said.
Despite feeling the pressure of past results going into the game, Girls' High maintained a lot of possession throughout the match and struck first before Mangapai scored from a penalty corner soon after to draw level.
Girls' High scored again later in the first half to take a 2-1 lead into the break before consolidating their win by converting a penalty corner in the second half of the Friday night fixture.
De Pass said: "It is good to get the win because it is a hard competition and we are expecting the same in [school] tournament week."
"Right now our target is moving forward to tournament week in September," de Pass added.
In other reserve A women's matches on Friday, Maungakaramea beat Springfield 4-1 while Old Girls beat Kamo High School 6-2 and Hikurangi beat Parihaka 3-0. In the reserve men's matches on Thursday, Maungakaramea beat Kamo High School 6-1 while Whangarei Boys' High School beat Bream Bay 5-3 and Mangapai beat Springfield 4-1.
