Gould strikes late in Northern upset
A goal to Northern United striker Todd Gould with just seconds left on the clock gave his side a 3-2 win over Indians after a hard-fought contest.
Gould opened the scoring in the fifth minute but a double to Aqshai Lala saw Indians leading 2-1 going into the last quarter.
As chances were created at both ends the admirable Julian Clarke squeezed the ball inside the left post with four minutes left. In a frantic finish Northern launched one final attack and Gould was on hand to notch Northern’s second win of the season.
Two men’s games were deferred because of players away at the national under-21 tournament in Auckland and Harbour City took the chance to go top of the table. They beat a much-improved Karori 4-1.
It was only 1-0 at halftime, then 2-0 at three-quarter time before goals to Rajan Dahya and Jared Jones gave Harbour the chance for a bonus point. As they pressed for a fifth Karori counter-attacked and were awarded two penalty corners, with Mike Tweed netting from the second.
Victoria kept the pressure on Harbour City in the women’s competition with a fourth-quarter strike to Phoebe Ellwood securing them a 3-2 victory. She had been on hand to tap in the first after accurate inter-passing, then Caitlin Proctor made it 2-0 from a penalty corner after just six minutes.
Karori fought back strongly with Jess McFadyen an influential figure in midfield and she and Jessie Manning brought Karori level 12 minutes from full-time. Ellwood immediately struck again for the students to continue their good early-season run.
Dalefield made the most of their trip across to Paraparaumu, picking up a bonus point in beating Kapiti 5-0. The home side competed well in most aspects but Dalefield’s more clinical finishing made the difference with Kristy Anderson bagging three. Megan Render in goal for Kapiti prevented the score going even higher while Jodie Given and Lucy Townend were other Kapiti players to stand out.
Indians chalked up their first win, taking a 4-1 victory over Toa. Latisha Patel scored early for Indians and it took until late in the third quarter before Emma Martin added a second. Trinity Clarke reduced the deficit but Indians kept attacking and Martin converted a penalty stroke midway through the final quarter.
With three minutes left Patel scored her second after good leadup play.