Maungakaramea teams were celebrating their first-ever premier league double well into the wee small hours of Sunday morning after both the men's and women's teams scored victories in the Northland club finals on Saturday.
Club stalwart Graeme Bint said the club's first-ever double was a good reason to celebrate.
"It's fantastic for the club to have both of their senior teams on the top of the Northland pedestal, as you might say," he said.
The women's team started the ball rolling with a comprehensive 4-1 win over against a strangely subdued Hikurangi-Parihaka in the premier women's final.
Hikurangi were trying to repeat their upset 2005 final win against Maungakaramea but although they were promising in parts they were not at their best at ITM Rosvall Stadium on Saturday evening.
Slick passing by the Maungakaramea team exposed Hikurangi's hesitant defence and created several early chances.
An Anna Thorpe goal in the ninth minute began Hikurangi's demise and just over 10 minutes later a Natalie Child break up the middle was finished off by Natasha Cotton to double their lead at halftime.
Hikurangi started the second spell strongly but couldn't turn pressure into a goal and when Cotton grabbed her second goal after a penalty corner to take the score to 3-0, the writing was on the wall.
Even when Thorpe was yellow-carded, Hikurangi failed to take advantage and the Maungakaramea and Northland striker had the final say, when she returned from the sideline to score her side's final goal with her next touch of the ball.
Hikurangi never gave up and deserved their consolation goal with a well-taken penalty corner scored by Toni Wright.
Maungakaramea captain Tania Crene said they saved their best form of the season for their final game.
"It was a comprehensive win, the kind of win we've been striving for all season," she said.
"In every game we've wanted to dominate from the outset ... but we've been a bit erratic but tonight we clicked."
She said the win was down to the entire squad coming together on the night - not just from good performances from their core of Northland NHL players.
"I heard calls from the sideline saying `come on Northland', but there were times on the field where there were four Northland players on the sideline, so it was a good team win."
The men's game was a lot closer and provided a great spectacle for those who braved the rain and the late start to watch the match right through.
Player coach John Child said their defence in the face of some extreme pressure from Springfield was responsible for the win.
"They (Springfield) played really well and had us under pressure but I thought we defended really well and I thought JC (goalkeeper Jareth Cocking ) played well at the back and all of our efforts paid off," he said.
Springfield fashioned more chances and earned a lot more penalty corners but couldn't capitalise in the face of Maungakaramea's desperate defence.
Child singled out Luke Gillingham and Brett Hood as the team's other stars on the night but from the sideline it seemed that the depth of the Maungakaramea bench was a telling factor in the match.
Sam Webb scored a great individual goal to give Maungakaramea a 1-0 lead at the break but Springfield were on top in the 53rd minute when Kieran Lynn robbed a defender of the ball and found David Heappey, who scored the match's pivotal goal to make it 2-0, with a reverse stick strike.
Jessie Wilson's consolation goal for Springfield, which was scored in the final seconds of the match, was too late to affect the result of the match.
HOCKEY - Late-night revelry follows Maungakaramea double
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