Marist’s last chance to take out third place
The man who coached Palmerston North Marist to title victory in last year’s Federation League will again have a hand in Marist’s fate this season.
Except this year, Shane Rufer is in charge at Red Sox-manawatu¯ , who Marist must beat today at Skoglund Park, Palmerston North, to claim third place in this season’s league, ahead of North End on goal differential.
Last year Red Sox couldn’t win a game and finished well adrift in bottom place in the league.
This season, under Rufer, they’ve had five wins and could finish in seventh spot if they come away with something from their clash with Marist.
Marist, for their part, can kiss goodbye to hopes of holding their league title – unbeaten Havelock North Wanderers romped home at the top and Napier Marist finished runners-up – but have third in their sights.
Needless to say, Golden Boot winner and Marist striker Nick Carrick has had something to do with that – his 21 league goals not far off half Marist’s total this year.
Marist manager Rachel Findon said with regulars Taylor Monk and Sam Jones missing, Marist would be filling their bench with reserves to make up numbers.
Red Sox is also stretched. Rufer said he would need to juggle with club players to fill his first-team roster for the game.
He’ll be missing his leading goal scorer, Fletcher Leslie, who is unavailable, and two other regulars, Sam Lee and Grayson Burston, who are turning out for the Red Sox reserves in an Easter Cup semi-final against Massey University.
Marist ran out 4-2 winners over Red Sox when they first met in the league in June.
■ Palmerston North Boys’ High kick off five days of play against the best secondary school sides in the country at Napier on Monday when the national schools tournament begins.
Thirty-two schools are competing in eight groups of four.
The top two in each group then go through to the final 16 to battle it out to find the ultimate winner.
Palmerston North are up against Auckland’s Westlake Boys’, Nelson College, who won it in 2015, and Rotorua Boys’, in their group.
Palmerston North meet Westlake and Nelson on Monday, then Rotorua on Tuesday morning.
Coach Steve Dawson said getting off to a good start was all-important if they hoped to qualify for the last 16.
He said he had a full-strength squad, but an injury cloud was hanging over winger Takasane Ogawa, one of the team’s leading goal scorers in Boys’ High’s Federation League campaign this season.
A notable addition is talented 14-year-old forward Jaiden Meyer, who Dawson rated as a player with considerable potential, having already scored inter-school goals for Boys’ High this season.
Dawson said their most experienced player, attacking midfielder Luke Minshull, was back from injury.
‘‘It’ll be tough,’’ he said.
But competing in the Federation League this year had been ‘‘an experience’’, he said, and Boys’ High had more than held their own in inter-school clashes during the season.