Thorne said the season had been a "big turnaround" for them after a disappointing season last year. "All we need now is one more good performance to complete a big turnaround for us this year and I'm sure the boys won't let the opportunity slip in the final," he said.
Richard Ranfurly scored the opening goal for Mangapai in the first half, while Sam Webb scored both goals for Maungakaramea.
Maungakaramea will play last year's champions, Bream Bay, who knocked out Springfield in the minor semifinal this weekend with the winner going through to the final against Mangapai in two weeks.
Bream Bay edged out the bottom-placed club 3-2 in the early game on Saturday to keep alive their hope of defending their title.
Whangarei Girls' High School left their best until last in the playoffs of the women's competition by giving Maungakaramea a nasty scare.
Maungakaramea trailed 3-1 at one stage in the match but fought their way back to lead 4-3 in the final minute until Girls' High equalised right on the stroke of fulltime.
It took until the second period of extra time, with both teams down to seven players,for Ella Gunson to snatch a winner.
Maungakaramea's Stephanie Hudson said that the students came at them hard and gave them a bigger challenge than they were expecting.
"It was a great game for the spectators but while it probably was a good warm-up for next week's semifinal, we're going to have to play a lot better than that if we're going to beat Old Girls," she said.
Next weekend Maungakaramea will face frontrunners Old Girls while second and third-placed Springfield and Hikurangi will meet in the other semifinal.
