Marist need win to claim third
Third place is still up for grabs in the men’s Federation League as the season winds down.
But Palmerston North Marist need to beat Red Sox-manawatu¯ in their last game of the season to edge North End for third spot in the league on goal difference.
As far as the relegation situation is concerned, Hokowhitu eased their worries by drawing 1-1 with Red Sox at the weekend to move past New Plymouth Rangers into ninth place on the league ladder.
Rangers and Palmerston North Boys’ High are the year’s bottom two sides and most liable to drop out of the competition if it is decided to relegate two teams.
Despite their 6-3 loss at Wanganui City, Boys’ High
coach Steve Dawson was full of praise for their performance, which saw the schoolboys ahead 2-1 at one stage in the first half of the game.
‘‘It was a huge improvement,’’ he said.
‘‘There were significant periods when we were on top.’’
Dawson said the game was just the tonic Boys’ High needed going into the national schools tournament next week.
The prestigious tournament is the top inter-school competition of the year.
In the clash with sixth-placed City, all Boys’ High’s goals came from their forwards, with KK Adeyinka, Ben Mori and Alex Bowden netting.
Adeyinka and Takasane Ogawa between them scored nearly half of Boys’ High’s league goals this season.
At Skoglund Park, Palmerston North, on Saturday, eighth-placed
Red Sox looked the better side against Hokowhitu, but could only manage one goal, through Rhys Janes, to cancel out a penalty from Hokowhitu’s Mark Manson.
Janes’ goal was a model of clinical precision when he got on to the end of a left-field cross in front of the Hokowhitu goal, but despite their pace along the wings and out of the halves, Red Sox couldn’t finish their chances even when it looked easier to score than miss.
At Massey University, the students’ late-season revival came to an end against fifthplaced Wanganui Athletic when they lost 3-2.
Joe Freeman and Ryan Noble scored for Massey in a game in which the students played well for ‘‘for 99 per cent of the match’’, according to coach Donald Piper.
The defeat meant Massey finished in seventh place in the league.
They now have a Federation Cup semi-final to play against Hokowhitu.
In the other league game at the weekend, unbeaten Havelock
North Wanderers hammered second-placed Napier Marist 7-0.
Meanwhile, in the Horizons Premiership, Levin took out the title by a point from Massey. Red Sox reserves finished third, followed by Feilding United.
‘‘It was a huge improvement. There were significant periods when we were on top.’’ PNBHS coach Steve Dawson