Katherine van Woerkom wins the ball. PHOTO/JADE CVETKOV
HOCKEY
Dalefield 6
Northern United 0
CHRIS COGDALE
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Dalefield scored six of the best as they continued their winning ways at the top Wellington Women’s Hockey Premiership.
The 6-0 win over a tenacious Northern United at Clareville was Dalefield’s fourth consecutive victory and they are now the only unbeaten team after defending champions Harbour City beat Hutt United 3-1.
Having kept Northern United scoreless also means that Dalefield have gone more than 15 quarters without conceding a goal.
Despite the one-sided score line, defence was an important factor in Dalefield’s win on Saturday.
After taking a 3-0 lead in the first quarter through goals to Morgan Percy [one minute], Jenna Anderson [four minutes], and Abby Crawley [nine minutes], Dalefield allowed Northern United back into the game with a drop in concentration and poor discipline which resulted in three players spending time in the ‘sin bin’.
Captain Michael O’Connor said she didn’t quite know what happened.
“We started off really well then got a bit fizzled, I guess. We had a few cards in there and we were a bit all over the place.” she said.
“We should’ve had a bit more composure and regrouped ourselves and we didn’t quite do that.
“They were definitely coming at us a lot in the middle of the game, it was really like ping pong back and forth and we were running ourselves a bit ragged.”
Dalefield did regain their composure and added the fourth goal through Katherine van Woerkom, in the third quarter.
Their long defensive record of not conceding a goal almost came to an end four minutes later when Northern United were awarded a penalty stroke, only for goalkeeper Amy Rossiter-Stead to pull off a brilliant diving save to her right.
Felicity Reidy and Brigitte Mossman put the icing on the bonus point victory with further goals in the fourth quarter.
O’Connor was pleased with the outcome and the defensive effort but said there’s still a lot to work on.
“We still need to be better at regrouping once we pass off and getting back into our set positions,” she said.
“We talked about our discipline and definitely the tackles were a bit messy, but I thought the other team could’ve got a few cards as well but that’s the way it goes.”
Defender Katie-Anne Saywell was the player of the day.
Dalefield lead the championship on 15 points, with Harbour City on 11 points and next Saturday’s opponent Hutt United on 10 points.
