Both premier men's hockey matches were characterised by dramatic comebacks on Saturday as Springfield and Mangapai grafted away for the full 70 minutes to come up with the points.
Both sides unleashed great second-half performances to overcome halftime deficits in their matches against Bream Bay and Maungakaramea respectively.
Mangapai's 3-2 victory over
Maungakaramea put them back on top of the competition and, according to their coach Steve Shepherd, came after some stern words at halftime.
"I told them not to blame anyone else for being 2-0 behind and to take responsibility of their own game and to get out there and do it," he said.
He said the win was even more rewarding because the side were lacking five of their first-choice players, out through injury and illness.
"Two of the club's stalwarts filled in for us, though and Don McKenzie and Murray Byles rotated on the right wing position and were very effective there for us," Shepherd said.
McKenzie scored two of the team's goals, while Mark Thorne scored the other. Allan Ford and Ian Page were Maungakaramea's scorers, but the team were weakened at halftime by the absence due to injury of their captain John Child.
The other match saw Springfield trail 3-0 at one stage before launching a second-half comeback which saw them grab an unlikely 4-3 win, with goals to Bevan Gibbes, Dion Watts, Gavin Alison and Ferdinand Von Oertzen.
In the women's competition, Old Girls caused the boil-over of the round by beating runaway league leaders Maungakaramea 2-0.
Coach Tania Hay said it was a near perfect game from her side, apart from the final 10 minutes when they "dropped off a bit from sheer exhaustion".
Jessie Boyce deflected a Laura Douglas cross into the top of the Maungakaramea net to open the scoring after 10 minutes, with Tarranah Vette completing the scoring in the second spell with a powerful shot from the top of the circle.
On Friday night, Kamo High School earned a scoreless draw with United-Kawakawa, while there was another upset in the Whangarei Girls' High School and Hikurangi-Parihaka match.
Second-placed High School couldn't find their rhythm against a determined Hikurangi and, although they trailed only 2-1 at the break, a second goal to Michelle King in the second spell finished the game off for a 3-1 win.
Kylie Henderson was Hikurangi's other scorer while Kelsey Dunn scored from a penalty corner for High School.
High School put the defeat behind them to beat Kamo High School 2-0 in a catch-up match yesterday, while Northland went down 3-4 to Auckland in their first pre-season match.
