It was the Aaron Burgess show again in the Footballsouth Premier League on Saturday as the deadly striker banged in five goals in Dunedin Technical's 10-1 thumping of Mosgiel at the Caledonian Ground.
In the other top-four game, Caversham stayed in touch with league-leading Technical by beating Roslyn-Wakari 4-1 at Ellis Park.
Burgess is having a season in which he can barely walk on a pitch without finding the back of the net multiple times.
He scored six against University and five against Northern earlier in the year, and this latest haul takes him to 29 goals in 12 league games.
The race to the Golden Boot may already be won.
"Aaron just proved his worth to the team again," Dunedin Technical coach Mike Fridge said.
Fridge conceded Technical's 3-0 loss to Caversham in last week's one-sided Chatham Cup tie, which Burgess missed because of work commitments, had motivated his side.
"That's football for you; get beaten one week and then bang in 10 the next.
"We were very disappointed with the way we played last week. For us, we've been knocked out of the cup so we now throw everything in to trying to win the league championship. There's still a lot for us to play for."
Andy Coburn scored twice, with Alistair Rickerby, George Milne and Michael Still adding Technical's other goals.
Technical scored twice in the first 15 minutes, then played the rest of the game against 10 men after a Mosgiel player was sent off.
"That changed the game, obviously, but I was still delighted with the way we played. You've still got to push forward and play football," Fridge said.
Dunedin Technical remains at the top of the league on 33 points, followed by Caversham (30), Roslyn-Wakari (24) and Mosgiel (22).
At Ellis Park, Caversham scored twice in each half in a fractious game that featured a red card for Roslyn defender Dave Shaw after the final whistle.
Shaw was sent off at the end of the game for allegedly showing dissent to the referee, and it is possible he will receive a suspension.
Patrick Fleming scored from a free kick and Robbie Deeley converted a penalty for Caversham in the first half, with player-coach Terry Boylan scoring for Roslyn.
Deeley got his second after the break and Tom Jackson also scored to seal the win for Caversham.
It seems likely the league will be decided over the final two rounds, with Dunedin Technical playing Caversham on both August 1 and August 8.
Before that, Caversham has to prepare for a Chatham Cup quarterfinal against Three Kings United on July 25-26.
In the split-six section of the league, Green Island beat University 3-1, Northern and Grants Braes drew 2-2 and Southland thrashed Queenstown 5-0.
