HOCKEY - 15 goals scored in nail-biter

Maungakaramea's Brett Hood gets the ball away ahead of Angus Lindsay of Bream Bay.Tania WebbA 15-goal semifinal thriller against Springfield ended in despair for Mangapai after Dion Watts scored the extra-time winner to knock them out of the men's premier hockey competition on Saturday evening.
A fantastic game of attacking hockey saw the score locked at an incredible 7-all at full time after the match had been locked up at 4-all at half time.
Mangapai's Brent Markwick couldn't remember hearing of such a scoreline in senior hockey before but said it had been a long time since he'd played in such an intense encounter.
"It was a pretty amazing game, with both sides playing such good attacking hockey and with that many goals scored ... I'm just lucky I was playing - I wouldn't have liked to be watching, it would have been too hard."
Springfield took an early 2-0 lead in the match but Mangapai fought back to level and then went ahead in the second spell to lead 7-5 with 10 minutes to go. Springfield levelled and, in the second seven-minute spell of extra time, Watts scored the winner to take his match tally to four goals.
Ferdinand Von Oertzen also scored a hat-trick while Markwick was the other scorer for Springfield.
Mangapai skipper Steve Shepherd said it wasn't a good feeling to have lost such a remarkable encounter. The normal standard of defence was of little use against the accurate attacks of both teams.
Mark Thorne scored a hat-trick, while Johnny Campbell, Matt Collins, Bryce Reid and Glen Smith were the other Mangapai scorers.
Markwick said the win would give the team a boost going into the final against Maungakaramea.
"We've got to address the fact that we had seven goals scored against us but thankfully we are managing to put a few away, so that gives us confidence going into next week," he said.
Maungakaramea defeated Bream Bay 3-1 in the early match on Saturday but their player-coach Graeme Bint said the match was tougher than the scoreline suggested.
In the first semifinal of the women's competition on Saturday, Maungakaramea came from behind to beat Old Girls 2-1 after another `golden goal' decider.
The first period of `golden goal' extra time finished without any further scoring and with just seven players each on the turf. Rowsell once again scored to break Old Girls' hearts.
"I think we paid the price for failing to push for a second goal in the second half, you certainly can't get away with defending a one-goal lead for 35 minutes against Maungakaramea," Old Girls' coach Tania Hay said.
Hikurangi pulled off a big upset to beat Whangarei Girls' High School 4-2 in the other women's semifinal, pulling away from a 1-0 halftime lead. It was a disappointing result for the Whangarei Girls outfit who were keen to add the Northland club trophy to the Federation Cup national schools title they won in Christchurch on Friday.