Wānaka secured a 2-0 victory over the Dunedin City Royals in the ODT Southern Men’s Premiership on Saturday.
Joe Renwick put one into his own net in the 74th minute following Daniel Brum’s opening goal for Wānaka just before the halftime break.
The win consolidated their second placing with one round of games to go, and Wānaka can seal that spot with a home win over Green Island.
Green Island will be smarting from a last-minute 4-3 loss to University at Sunnyvale.
The home side found themselves 2-0 down when Sam Murray scored two goals in
four minutes to put the students in charge after 34 minutes.
Mitchell Thorn’s diving header in the last minute of the first half reduced the deficit, and Finley Kruger finished a nice passing move inside the box to restore parity three minutes after the restart.
Green Island went ahead when Josh Kotkamp scored in the 52nd minute, and University’s Oscar Crowe was sent off for leaving the field without the officials’ consent.
Riley McLean equalised for the students with 16 minutes to go and University coach Robbie Mitchell pulled off a master stroke when he introduced Reagan Quirke as a substitute in the third minute of stoppage time, and Quirke duly got the winner in the seventh added minute.
Roslyn-Wakari beat Queenstown 4-0 with late goals in each half.
Giovanni Pribaz scored in first-half stoppage time, and Nathan Wilkie scored in the 90th minute and completed a remarkable hat-trick in second-half stoppage time.
There was also a hat-trick in Northern’s 5-1 win over Northern Hearts.
Rory Hibbert claimed three goals to complement efforts from Sam Cosgrove and Emilio Ghosh-Novero.
Bailey Chambers replied for Hearts.
Mosgiel secured a 3-1 victory over Queens Park in Invercargill. After a scoreless first half, Reece Burtenshaw crossed for Rhys Quarrell to finish from close range for Mosgiel, and George Duncan added a second six minutes later.
Queens Park added a bit of spice when Anton Fitzgerald latched on to a defensive error to pull one back in the 90th minute, but Quarrell made the game safe with his second two minutes into stoppage time.
— The Dunedin City Royals had a routine 5-0 victory in Nelson over Suburbs in the South Island women’s league.
Georgia Kennedy scored twice for the Royals and the other goals came from Hannah Mackay-Wright, Abby Rankin and Raegan Potter.
It sets up a thrilling prospect in next week’s home game against Cashmere Tech when the winners will be the South Island champions.
Otago University claimed local bragging rights with a 2-0 victory over rivals Roslyn-Wakari, both goals coming in a two-minute spell in the first half through Aynsley Martin and Jemma McCormick.
— There were no home comforts for the Royals men at Tahuna Park yesterday.
The Royals had a horror start against the Coastal Spirit before slipping to a 5-0 loss in the Southern League clash.
There are still two games
left to play for the Royals to finish as high as sixth in the league.
Cashmere Tech clinched the league title with a 3-0 win over Ferrymead Bays.
Relentless striker Garbhan Coughlan scored twice to take his season tally to 25.
— Neville Watson
