Football: Leaders all win premier matches

The WaiBOP Premiership's top four have all picked up three points.

The WaiBOP Premiership's top four all picked up three points at the weekend, but the main point of interest was Kawerau Sports' 3-0 win over West Hamilton at the summit of the WaiBOP Championship.

In what was expected to be a tight encounter between the Championship's top two sides, Kawerau stamped their name all over title favouritism with the emphatic margin of their victory.

West Hamilton will still be favoured to grab one of the two promotion spots but their first defeat since early April put a big dent in their title aspirations. The two sides face each other again on the final day of the season in what could be a winner-takes-all-the-silverware situation.

Back in the Premiership, leaders Cambridge were forced to work for the points at lowly Katikati. An own goal had the hosts ahead at half time but Tom Woutersen's second half double secured a 2-1 win and maintained their seven point advantage over second placed Ngongotaha.

First half goals from Harlem Simiona and J Waller eased Ngongotaha to a comfortable 2-0 victory over SGS Papamoa at Stembridge Road. The Villagers still have two games in hand over Cambridge but need their rivals to slip up again to give them any hope of bagging the Premiership title.

Melville United stayed comfortably in third spot after their scheduled opponents, Tauranga City United, failed to front, leaving the Hamiltonians with a 3-0 victory and a five point gap back to Old Blues in fourth.

Old Blues scored the only goal of the game at Waikato University to beat Unicol 1-0 and move onto 31 points.

In the Premiership's other games, Otumoetai's Isaac Bright, Daniel Miller and Matt Collins scored goals in a 3-0 win at Rotorua United while a first half penalty gave Tauranga Boys College a 1-0 win over Waikato Stud Matamata Swifts.

Claudelands Rovers stayed in third, two points off the promotion pace, with a 6-5 win over Te Puke at Galloway Park. Joel Roil and Waikato Ball each grabbed doubles and were joined on the score sheet by Cam Olsen and Ewan Oliver. Te Puke, who led 3-2 at the break, replied with strikes from Amrit Singh, Nick Johnson twice and Charlie McIllwaine, who also scored twice.

Te Awamutu had their best day of the season after scoring a 7-0 win at Ngongotaha reserves.

Whakatane Town beat Old Blues reserves 2-0 in the final game in the Championship. They scored a goal in each half, through Ricky Owen and Jordan Whittaker.