Premiers Albion Park have stamped their authority in the Illawarra South Coast women's league after beating contenders Wests Illawarra 4-1 in round 10 at Unanderra last Friday night.
On a chilly night with scores locked at 1-1 at halftime, Park found their immense energy in the second half to hit three goal in the third quarter.
Park captain Emma McLeish, who has just retired from the national indoor hockey team, was pretty happy with the team's performance, saying that they created a lot of opportunities.
Park coach Shane McLeish, current Park men's player, together with Emma, have moulded this team into a winning combination and strive to improve and be successful. Shane has played Kelsey Hughes more of a central role and moved Emma into a high striker role where she is proving very hard to stop and is the highest goal-scorer so far.
"We have changed and tweaked a few things," he said. "All of the girls have a role in our structure and do the hard work to maintain it and it seems to be working for us."
Friday's game saw the Park girls put pressure in the second half with Hughes scoring their second goal. Emma then scored a double, the final from a penalty corner for the 4-1 score.
It was Park who scored the first goal through Cherie Marsh before Wests equalled through Lisa Quinn.
Wests coach Bianca Broadhurst, former Hockeyroo and 2004 Olympian, was proud of her team who missed several first graders and had players backing up from second grade.
"I thought we did a great job to hold them to 1-1 and the physical challenge of the two backs to back games made the difference in the end," Broadhurst said.
In the other games, Figtree-Unanderra beat Railway Greys 2-0 with a brace from Charlotte Portell, and University beat Avondale 4-1 with a hat-trick from Miri Maroney and one goal from Kayla Beaton.
In round nine of the men's league, Park beat Dapto 4-0 with goals from Brady Anderson, Jack Hayes, Josh Mayo and Riley Nilan, while Wests Illawarra held University to a 1-1 scoreline with Wests' Sam Wright-Smith cancelling out Heath Ogilvie's opening goal.
Elsewhere in Wagga Wagga, ISC One won the NSW State Under 15 Boys Hockey Championships, beating Parkes 3-0 in the final last Sunday.
Park first-grader Justin Murray scored a brace and Zeke Thompson mustered the third goal.
Our news app has had a makeover, making it faster and giving you access to even more great content. Download The Illawarra Mercury news app in the Apple Store and Google Play.
