Old Girls came from behind to record an unlikely 4-3 win over Maungakaramea to retain their slim one-point advantage in the Northland premier women's hockey competition.
Old Girls trailed Maungakaramea 2-0 at halftime after being outplayed for the first 35 minutes but began to put things right in thesecond spell with Tarannah Vette scoring after just five minutes.
Twenty minutes into the spell Laura Douglas scored the first of her side's three penalty corners to equalise before Hannah Nink and Julie Crum also scored from the set-piece to ensure a squeaky win.
Old Girls' coach Alan Lints, although jubilant, thought Maungakaramea deserved better from the game. "We were more than a little lucky, Maungakaramea came out with a good plan and marked our best players out of the game," he said.
"They really should have won but we have our goalie Karen Parker to thank for our win - she stopped a number of their chances that allowed us to stay in the game."
The upset of the weekend was Whangarei Girls' High School's 5-1 demolition job on Hikurangi with Anna Miller (2), Gaby Sykes, Ella Kini, and Fara McLean scoring the goals. The win signalled that the high school side have really found their feet at this level.
Kamo High School also continue to improve but still got thumped by second-placed Springfield 8-0. Springfield's Kelsey Dunn got a hat-trick as they dominated the young side who enjoyed some good periods of play during the game but leaked goals in rapid succession at times to ruin their overall effort.
The men's competition saw leaders' Springfield struggle to beat bottom-placed Mangapai. Mangapai, missing four of their starting line-up, jumped out to an early lead with the young replacement players all reacting well to the challenge.
It took a while for Springfield to settle but they had levelled the scores at 2-2 by halftime and then outplayed Mangapai in the second spell to round out a 4-2 win.
In the other match Maungakaramea's victory celebrations were cut short with a Bream Bay equaliser right on fulltime to earn the side a point for the 1-1 result.
