Hockey: Nervous end to tight match

Liv Crumb (left), Katrina Howe, Malin Nechwatal, Madi Doar, Jess Pilmer and Aimee Scott celebrate a goal against Maungakaramea during their premier women's hockey match.

A late 4-2 win for Real Deal Maungakaramea saw them hold off a well-versed Whangarei Girls' High School outfit during Saturday's premier women's hockey action.

After a slow start from both teams the match remained tight throughout the first three quarters.

With plenty of opportunities going amiss, Maungakaramea finally managed to make two goals stick - despite both coming inside the last five minutes.

For Maungakaramea coach David Heappey it was "nervous times in the dugout" during the dying stages of the game.

"It was a good win - that extra determination and extra experience got us through at the end. There were some really good goals that we did get and we were a little unlucky in the first half to not put the ball in the net. The big thing we need to work on is goal scoring.

"We did manage to do it in the final moments but we need to do it earlier."

WGHS coach Alan Moscrip was pleased with the challenge put on by his youthful team.

"We had a few chances [but] we're still really happy. We're really competitive and sitting in the middle of the table and trying to peg some of these top teams which is our challenge for the next round.

"The young ones, I think early on in the season, were free spirits [but] now they've seen a bit of premier hockey."

In other premier women's hockey matches, ChillTech Old Girls beat Club Auto Hikurangi 4-1 and Echonorth Mangapai suffered a 9-0 defeat against Gilmour Brown Springfield.

In round 3 of the men's premier 9s, Currie Electrical Springfield beat Morris and Morris Mangapai 7-1 while Dempster and Hill Maungakaramea beat Bream Bay United 8-2.

Results:

Premier Men 9s, Round 3:

Springfield 7 Mangapai 1

Maungakaramea 8 Bream Bay United 2

Premier Women, Round 8:

Old Girls 4 Hikurangi 1

Maungakaramea 4 Whangarei Girls' High School 2

Springfield 9 Mangapai 0