Local lads storm national comp
The Bay of Plenty U18 Boys Hockey team have won the national title for the first time ever.
The team won gold in Invercargill last weekend, beating Southland’s Under 18 team in the final.
Taupo players featured heavily in the team, with seven from the lake town, six from Rotorua and two from Whakatane.
Taupo players included Kynan Harrison, Mathew Forsyth, Jordan Milne, Campbell Maclean, Bailey Harrison and Benjamin Hall from Taupo-nui-a-Tia College, with Dean McCann from Tauhara College.
Kynan said the Taupo lads made a strong contribution to the team.
‘‘We’re a big part of the defense. Especially in the final, our defense was solid throughout the game,’’ he said.
‘‘It was a Rotorua player that scored the final goal, but Taupo players helped set it up, so we were quite influential.’’
Bay of Plenty went through the tournament undefeated.
On the first day, BOP won 6-1 over Thames Valley, then won 5-0 win against Manawatu on Day 2.
At the final pool game against Waikato, where a chance at the top eight beckoned, saw the boys win 2-1 after being down 1- 0 at halftime.
The quarter final clash against Wellington was a close-fought match, which Bay of Plenty won 2-1. A 5-0 win over Auckland sent BOP to the final against homeside Southland.
Nil-all at full time, the game went into extra time, before Rotorua’s Warrick Auge scored the golden goal.
Kynan, vice captain, said the team’s success came from working together.
‘‘We gelled well off the field, as well as on it. We didn’t take our foot off the throttle, we just went hard for the duration of each game.’’
BOP were top of the goal scoring table at the end of tournament with 21 goals. Goalkeeper Brian Coles from Whakatane was named MVP, after conceding only three goals.
Kynan, Mathew, Jordan and Dean are in their second year of U18 representative hockey while Campbell, Bailey and Ben have moved into U18 after representing BOP in the U15s last year.