Te Puke Utd women reach Waikato Cup final in penalty shoot-out

Sammi Parish, left, scored two goals in Te Puke Utd's semifinal win over Cambridge.

In a strange twist of fate, Te Puke Utd's women's team will play Cambridge Utd in the final of the Waikato Cup on Sunday after winning the semifinal last weekend - beating Cambridge Utd.

It was Cambridge's first team that travelled to Te Puke last Sunday. The club's reserve side will be the opponents in the final.

The semifinal drew a big crowd to Litt Park with most going away happy after a game full of incident that was eventually decided with a penalty shoot-out in which Te Puke goalkeeper Swantje Mettenleiter was the star.

Te Puke started well, putting on the pressure, but the Cambridge defence proved equal to any threat.

The game was almost half an hour old when the breakthrough came as midfielder Summer Bailey won the ball, found Chynna Davie who spotted a gap behind the Cambridge defence for strike partner Sammi Parish to put the ball into the back of the net. It was almost two 10 minutes later, Parish again the threat, hitting the inside of the post and bouncing in the keeper's hands.

Parish continued to threaten and within five minutes of the restart, she found her second goal.

Cambridge responded with Te Puke centre-back Talia Hope anticipating to clear the ball a metre before the line.

Just past the hour mark, Cambridge got their first, despite calls for off-side, and then drew level with 10 minutes to go, scoring from a corner. Calls for hand ball went unheard and the game was set for 30 minutes of extra time.

The sides still couldn't be separated, bringing the penalty shoot-out into play.
Sarah Earle stepped up to bury the first penalty, while Mettenleiter saved Cambridge's first.

With Cambridge missing two and another Mettenleiter saves, the keeper was given the chance to win the game which she did, winning herself the Anann player of the day accolade.

In the other semifinal, Cambridge's second team beat Thames 6-5. The final will be at Korikori Park in Hamilton at 10am on Sunday.