Calum Wilbur said spots for the Whanganui men's team may be hard to come by after some newcomers did well filling in during Saturday's big win over College B.
Calum Wilbur said spots for the Whanganui men's team may be hard to come by after some newcomers did well filling in during Saturday's big win over College B.
The Whanganui men locked in their place for the middle division of the Hockey Manawatu as their unbeaten run in Premier Reserve Men continued with a 5-0 dismissal of College B on Saturday.
Preparing for the first of three straight games against the top teams in the grade, College Bbrought a strong squad of 15 with them to Gonville, including members of last season's College A team, as well as a gameplan to dominate the midfield.
Meanwhile, Whanganui had seven regular players unavailable, leading to a late scramble on the the team's Facebook message group to get a bare playing XI, which included a couple of debutants from different ends of the spectrum.
Young player Finn Murphy came in and scored the team's second goal for a 2-0 lead at halftime, while veteran Stu Thornton blew the dust of his stick and also had a good match.
Senior player Calum Wilbur said both of them will be staying in the lineup.
"Without a couple of guys who should be our stronger players, the ball movement was a bit crisper."
Hamish Bielby opened the scoring in the first quarter, followed by Murphy before halftime, and then Whanganui got two goals to settle the matter in the third quarter.
Kaelin Mooney scored for the second match in a row, while Josh McDonnell got credit for a College own goal as a defender got hold of part of his cross, but not enough of it to stop the ball going in.
James Craig then scored in the final quarter to complete the hammering.
The win kept a seven point spread on second place Marton, who had a big 7-3 win over winless High School Hockey Club B, while Massey Reserves maintained third place from a further point back, after beating Marist B 2-0.
However, with Marton and Massey still to play each other during these last three rounds, while Whanganui will have a layup with HSHC B, the club is safe to make the Top 2 when Premier and Premier Reserve splits into three.
They will be joined by two relegated teams from Premier, one of whom will be winless Palmerston North Boys High, while the other will be either the Marist Wolverines or the Massey Premiers, who are tied for points with Massey having the slightly better differential.
"It's a case of picking the strongest team at that stage," said Wilbur.
There was quite the gap between the two Gonville games as the Whanganui Women's team came off a two week break to find their 1.30pm match with Palmerston North Girls High had to be moved to 11am.
"Palmy Girls apparently requested an early game, for what I don't know," said player-coach Colleen Baylis.
"I don't think it would have helped us anyway [at 1.30pm]."
These two teams drew 3-3 at the Twin Turfs in April for Whanganui's first game of the year, but this time the school girls had the edge, winning 4-2.
Sophie Redmayne and her women's team had their afternoon game rescheduled to the morning for a loss to Palmerston North Girls High.
Whanganui started well with the only goal of the first quarter.
"The whole game from there was quite flat," said Baylis.
"We were stepping back and allowing them room, rather than pushing up on them."
PNGHS then picked up back to back goals in each of the following quarters for a 4-1 lead, before Whanganui fixed their structure and pulled one back in the final period.
Looking forward, Whanganui will have a chance at the Challenge Shield this coming weekend, after College A took it off High School Hockey A with a 1-0 win at the Twin Turfs in their top of the table clash.
Whanganui had been doing alright against College A in the first round back in May, being deadlocked with them 2-2 until former star Black Stick Kayla Whitelock went herself to score two goals in the last four minutes.
