Former Black Stick Anna Alexander celebrates the third and winning goal - she scored all three goals - in their Whangārei Prem Women's Hockey final on Saturday.
Photos / Michael Cunningham
Former Black Stick Anna Alexander celebrates the third and winning goal - she scored all three goals - in their Whangārei Prem Women's Hockey final on Saturday.
Photos / Michael Cunningham
Maungakaramea have been crowned premier women's champions after a hat trick from midfielder and former Black Stick Anna Alexander helped them beat Old Girls 3-2 in the final on Saturday.
Old Girls started the game strongly and went two goals up in the first quarter thanks to two quick attacking breaks but Maungakaramea regrouped at the quarter time break.
Maungakaramea's Bronson Baker looks to pass in his team's Whangārei Prem Hockey Final against Springfield on Saturday.
Maungakaramea coach Tama Jones said his side realised they started nervously but were confident in their systems.
"We were starting to build back into the game and were starting to compete in the moments and knew that if we kept going forward with that we'd get our rhythm back," Jones said.
Alexander's first goal came in the second quarter through a straight penalty corner strike and it took Maungakaramea into the halftime break 2-1 down but gaining momentum.
Springfield's 'keeper Grant Croft does his job as his side won the Prem Men's Hockey Final 1-0 against Maungakaramea at Kensington.
Maungakaramea linked well and were able to control the midfield in the third quarter and when they were awarded two penalty corners in quick succession. They stuck with the successful formula and Alexander scored her second and third in the exact same fashion as the first.
"It was about having a bit of self confidence and just knowing what we're doing does work and everyone doing their roles and once we started doing that and ironing out some of the mistakes then we started creating pressure and controlling the game," Jones said.
Old Girls' Megan McGregor (bottom) and Maungakaramea's Jane Thomson tussle for the ball.
As the pressure mounted on Old Girls, their experienced players made uncharacteristic errors on attack as they squandered opportunities to equalise.
Old Girls threw everything into their attack in the final quarter but Maungakaramea's defence scrambled well and put their bodies on the line to keep Old Girls out.
In the premier men's final, Springfield left it late but took home the silverware with a 1-0 win over Maungakaramea.
The match provided plenty of sparks as the intensity of the occasion fuelled the rivalry between the two sides.
Both teams had chances to go ahead early in the match but it wasn't until the final quarter that Springfield's Lloyd Gurr broke the deadlock when he slotted home a loose ball from a penalty corner.
Maungakaramea desperately tried to find the equaliser in the last 10 minutes of the match, even pulling their goalkeeper to play with an extra field player, but Springfield kept their cool and stayed solid on defence.
In the reserve grade finals, Maungakaramea beat Hora Hora 3-1 in the men's final and Hikurangi beat Maungakaramea 4-2 in the reserve A women's final.
