Marist take top spot on league table
Hokowhitu team manager Scott Taylor predicted Marist would be the team to beat this season after recruiting well during the break.
The Palmerston North trio of titleholders, Marist, Red Soxmanawatu¯ and North End, have taken an early grip at the top of the Federation League 11-team dogfight after the weekend’s second round.
But lurking are Havelock North Wanderers, who played and won their first federation game of the season on Saturday after coming down from the Central League at the end of last year.
At the other end of the league ladder, Massey University, Palmerston North Boys’ High School and Hokowhitu are still without a point, although the students had the bye at the weekend.
Marist beat Hokowhitu 4-0 at Memorial Park, Palmerston North, through a first-half brace from striker Nick Carrick then goals after the break from Luke Palfreyman and Adam Cowan.
Hokowhitu had their chances, especially just before halftime, when midfielder AJ Toki had a one-on-one encounter with Marist keeper Liam Outtrim, but he slid the ball wide. Hokowhitu team manager Scott Taylor said it might have been a different game if it had been 2-1 at halftime.
But it was overall a scrappy encounter, with both sides guilty of too many miss passes and miss hits, although Marist will be pleased they at least kept a clean sheet at the end even if it wasn’t their best effort.
And the result could have been closer if Hokowhitu had someone up front to finish some promising-looking, if sporadic, buildups, but as it was Marist added handsomely to their goal tally to now sit atop the league ladder.
Taylor said they always knew Marist were going to be hard to beat and praised his exwellington Olympic goalie Robbie Hoek for some outstanding stops that kept Hokowhitu in the game for most of the afternoon.
He predicted Marist would be the team to beat this season after recruiting well during the break.
Red Sox coach Shane Rufer praised Boys’ High after his side beat the schoolboys 2-1 at Skoglund Park, Palmerston North, saying they would do well this season despite not yet getting on the points ladder.
Boys’ High coach Steve Dawson said he was ‘‘very disappointed’’ at the outcome, especially after his team had taken the lead in the second spell after a scoreless first half through a goal from striker KK Adeyinka, who has now scored in both his league outings this season.
He said Boys’ High didn’t respond when Red Sox lifted their game in the second half and rattled in two quick goals through Rhys Janes and Jesse Jackson.
Meanwhile, North End broke local hearts again with a last-gasp goal that gave them a 2-1 victory at Wanganui Athletic.
Coach Garry Hodge said Athletic deserved their first-half 1-0 lead after North End wasted their chances. North End finally got on the scoresheet through striker Nathan Cooksley after about 66 minutes.
Then with what turned out to be the game’s last kick, Michael Sheridan chipped over the Athletic keeper to score what Hodge rated a ‘‘fantastic’’ goal.
That left North End unbeaten in their past three visits to Whanganui. In other results Wanderers beat New Plymouth Rangers 4-1 and Napier Marist pipped Wanganui City 3-2.