Strong start by Pride

Canterbury United Pride made an emphatic start to their defence of the National Women’s Football League title yesterday, putting six goals past Capital at their English Park home in Christchurch.

Southern United were also big winners, scoring six goals themselves as they eased past Central at Logan Park in Dunedin, while Auckland had a 3-0 win over Waikato-Bay of Plenty at John Kerkhof Park in Cambridge.

The Pride were missing several under-20 internationals, with coach Alana Gunn choosing to rest them following their exertions at the OFC Under-19 Championship in the Cook Islands, which they won on Friday.

They didn’t miss a beat, however, with debutant Nicola Dominikovich opening the scoring 24 minutes in to give them a 1-0 lead at halftime.

Back with the Pride after four years in the United States college system with Pittsburgh and a stint at Northern, striker Bel van Noorden made it 2-0 shortly after the restart.

The Pride added three more in the final 20 minutes, with Whitney Hepburn, Jasmine Donald, Britney-Lee Nicholson, and Hepburn again finding the back of the net.

It took Southern less than a minute to get going against Central as Shontelle Smith converted a penalty to put them in front.

Chelsea Whittaker doubled their lead 20 minutes in, with agegroup international Hannah Mackay-Wright – playing less than 48 hours after the OFC Under-19 final ended – scoring after a goalmouth scramble to make it 3-0 at halftime.

Lena de Ronde, Mikayla Gray, and Ruby Anderson all chipped in in the second half.

Auckland followed the Pride’s lead, not Southern’s, and were without their under-20 internationals, but were able to rely on Football Ferns Steph Skilton and Katie Duncan, who both scored in the first half against Waikato-Bay of Plenty.

WaiBop were already missing a number of the region’s established players.

In those circumstances, to only lose 3-0 was impressive, with Britney Cunningham-Lee scoring Auckland’s sole second-half goal.