Keri sides fall short in finals

FINAL FLOURISH: The Kerikeri High School side lines up with their Northland Women's Knockout Cup runners up medals at Toll Stadium on Sunday.

FC Whangarei Reserves 9 Kerikeri Harcourts Masters 0: No fairytale ending for the Kerikeri Masters who fell at the final hurdle in their quest to achieve the double and add the Stafford Choat Bowl to the Northland Men's 2nd Division title.

Despite being one of the biggest scorelines ever handed out to the side in its three seasons of existence, Keri gaffer Sean White reminded the boys had gone into Saturday's match punching above their weight.

"Great experience for his lads to have played at Toll Stadium but we were beaten by a faster and better team on the day. All credit to the boys, they played with dignity and left everything on the pitch," said White, adding the 2015 campaign could still be regarded as a successful one, with the side defending its NM2 title to add to the O35s championship victory back in 2013.

The bowl final was one of three games played at Toll Stadium on Saturday to wrap up the provincial football season. The first match at 11am saw Northern Wairoa win the Stafford Choat Plate by beating 3rd div stablemates Tikipunga Development 3-2, while in the main game of the day at 3pm, the Kamo Reserves 1st divvers created a bit of an upset in beating the Tikipunga's prem divvers 2-1.

Kamo 2 Kerikeri High School 0 (half time 1-0): The runners-up in the Northland Women's Premier Division (NWP) eventually going down to a very slick championship winners in the Northland Women's Knockout Cup final at Toll Stadium on Sunday.

Keri High coach Russell McCabe said he was still pleased with the performance, and admitting no-one's expectations had ever been that high against a far more experienced Kamo side featuring several North Force reps. Despite this, the underdogs actually dominated possession for large patches of the game, with both of Kamo's goals - Sandy Burleigh heading in from a corner in the first half/ a Hannah Mortimer long ranger creeping in under the cross bar in the second - coming against the run of play.

"Girls gave it their all, played really well. They came off happy, did their best," said McCabe, adding the girls had been really excited about getting the opportunity to play on the hallowed turf of Toll Stadium (particularly after last year's disappointment which saw finals weekend transferred to local parks after Toll Stadium had become waterlogged). McCabe praised the NFF people for doing a great job of turning it on for the finals.

He also noted there was big group of supporters there, "everybody brought their family" although the crowd was still dwarfed by the massive stadium; perhaps evidence the round ball game was still to capture the wider attention of the Northland communities involved.

The KO Cup final - curtain raised by the Northland Women's Knockout Plate final where Hora Hora beat Onerahi 3-1 - represented the final game of the season for Keri High side who had returned from the Satellites tournament in Auckland a week before having placed 10th out of 24 teams; not totally unremarkable considering the schoolgirls had ended up in a pool with the two teams who eventually took first and second placings, Rangiora from Christchurch and Western Springs.

A popular coach, McCabe said he planned to return to helm the side again next season and do even better. "We've had a whole lot of seconds this year, second in the competition, second in the knockout, and second in the [Northland] secondary schools."