Gisborne Boys’ High School too sharp for Waituhi in men’s hockey

Gisborne Boys' High School First XI outgunned Waituhi on the Hain Farming turf on Monday night. They had two goals in the bank by halftime and went on to win the Poverty Bay men's club competition game 4-0. Dylan Storey (pictured right playing against Napier Boys' High) had a strong game at the back. Photo / Liam Clayton

A clear-cut victory to Gisborne Boys’ High School First XI over Waituhi and a hard-fought win to Ngatapa against Gisborne Girls’ High First XI highlighted Poverty Bay club hockey over the weekend and on Monday.

The Boys’ High-Waituhi men’s match was postponed from Saturday to Monday night on the Hain Farming Turf at Harry Barker Reserve.

The students won 4-0 to remain unbeaten, alongside YMP A men, so far this season.

“The boys scored their first goal [to Ollie Egan] later in the first quarter after a slow start out of the blocks,” Gisborne Boys’ High School coach Wade Manson said.

They doubled their lead shortly before halftime – a superb reverse stick shot from Egan finding the top left corner of the net.

“The third quarter was the best one for them,” Manson said. “They added another goal (to German exchange student Johann Friedlaender), and then got the fourth (Austin Fergus) just on fulltime.”

“Waituhi gave it to us. They definitely had some threats at the attacking end, but we were lucky enough, I guess, to keep them out,” Manson said.

“The boys are doing really well. We’re about development and the boys getting as much game time as they can before they go to tournaments in August and September.”

The women’s game between PGG Wrightson Ngātapa and Gisborne Girls’ High School was a lot closer – Ngātapa edging the students 3-2.

In other results over the weekend, competition leaders YMP A women had to work hard against Lytton Paikea Sports Club (LPSC) Paikea in winning 5-2 and maintaining their perfect record for the season.

As expected, GMC Green were too strong for clubmates GMC Kowhai, rattling home eight goals to one, although Kowhai can take heart from scoring a goal (to Arna Searle) and halving the number of goals the Green Machine put past them in the first round.

LPSC Traktion got the result they wanted over YMP B men – 3-0 – but they also had to work for it.

Defending champions the YMP A men won by default over the personnel-hit LPSC Resene Masters.