Hockey: Bream Bay hang tough for tight win

Old Girls' Sophie Morrison, left and Springfield's Gabby Hooper tussle for the ball. Photo / John Stone

It was a heated battle on a cold Friday night between Bream Bay United and Maungakaramea in the premier men's hockey competition.

Bream Bay came out winners 1-0.

Despite playing more than 15 minutes of the game without their full complement due to green and yellow card suspensions for two of their players, Bream Bay kept themselves in the game with a strong defence.

Maungakaramea started the game strongly and Bream Bay coach Vicki Gribble admitted it took her side a while to adjust to the pressure.

"The guys stuck to the game plan and we worked really hard to shut their game down, which means while we're not scoring, they're not," she said.

Bream Bay scored halfway through the second quarter when they got a shot over the advancing goalkeeper, then used uncompromising defence to deny Maungakaramea any chances.

Gribble said at times her team's desperation didn't cause the problems it can do.

"Our desperation in defence can lead to errors and conceding goals but for the first time that desperation didn't degenerate into errors and we were still quite composed."

Spending the final 10 minutes of the game camped in defence with only 10 men on the field, Bream Bay showed good aggression in their own half to get to the ball first and clear any danger. "Instead of standing off and letting them have it we got in there and got the ball," Gribble said.

Springfield's Jess Heywood belts the ball. Photo / John Stone

In the other premier men's match on Saturday, Mangapai prevailed over Springfield 1-0. Meanwhile, Maungakaramea beat Mangapai 7-0 while Old Girls continued their winning ways with a 2-1 win over Springfield in the the premier women's competition.

Whangarei Girls' High School bounced back strongly from last week's defeat to beat Hikurangi 8-2.

Premier hockey takes a two-week break while the national under-18 tournament takes place in Palmerston North from July 10 to 16.