Wairarapa maintained their unbeaten record at the Hatch Cup national primary schoolboys hockey tournament in Auckland yesterday. They made it four wins from as many matches in pool play by defeating Eastern Southland 4-0 and Wellington 4-2. The match against Eastern Southland was a scrappy affair with Wairarapa always being in controlon the scoreboard but struggling to get any flow into their game. Three of their goals were scored by Shane Hodgkiss with the other going to Ben Poole. Hodgkiss chalked up his second hat-trick of the day in the match with the powerful Wellington combination. Two of his three goals came from drag flicks at penalty corners. Bryden Henson also scored a goal for a Wairarapa team which led 2-0 at halftime and worked their way out to a 4-1 lead in the second spell. A late Wellington revival saw Wairarapa on hard defence over the closing stages but they held on well for a deserved win. Wairarapa coach John Poole said character and resolve had played a big part in his team's victory. "They were under a lot of pressure towards the end of the game but they kept their cool ," he said. Yesterday's results left Wairarapa at the top of their pool and a win over either Taranaki tonight or Northland tomorrow should be enough to get them through to the quarter-finals. Poole emphasised, however, that with Taranaki and Northland both showing good form over the past two days nothing was being taking for granted. "Consistency is what matters in tournaments like this and that's what we've got to aim for," he said. "We've got two pool games to go and we want to win them both."
