Whangarei Girls' High School pulled off a major coup by winning the Federation Cup in Christchurch yesterday with a "golden goal" winner over Tauranga Girls' High School.
The 3-2 victory gave the school their second successive title at the country's top secondary school hockey tournament but unlike last year the team
were without many of their top players.
"It was a tougher win than last year for us, not because they were lesser hockey players but because they were so much younger and less experienced ... I'm so proud of them," coach Angeline Waetford said.
The win underlined the depth of hockey talent at the school but also the team's determination to win. They twice came from behind to win the final.
Tauranga scored in the first 10 minutes of the match and led until four minutes before the break, when Kelsey Dunn equalised.
Tauranga regained the lead with a well-taken goal to New Zealand junior Gemma Flynn, and they looked like they had done enough to win until Merle Aschenburg equalised with less than two minutes remaining in the match.
Joeline Marks scored the winner two minutes into extra-time to send the Whangarei team into noisy celebrations.
"They're just ecstatic as you can imagine. It's been a tough week for us all," Waetford said.
Whangarei started the tournament with a disappointing 2-2 draw against Wellington East College, a team that eventually finished the tournament in 14th place.
Harsh words may have followed the draw as their second match was an 11-0 thrashing of Ashburton College.
Then the team met Tauranga Girls' High School for the first time in their final pool match with the result another 2-2 draw. They reached the final by beating Wairarapa College 1-0 in the quarterfinal and St Cuthberts 2-1 in the semifinal.
Kamo High School finished in eighth position, in keeping with their pre-tournament aspirations.
Coach Donna Edlington said the team was in a rebuilding phase after losing several of their top players last year and they achieved their goal by reaching the quarterfinals.
