City Highlanders A scored an upset win when they beat fancied rival Kings United 2-1 in premier men's hockey on Saturday.
The game started off slowly with both teams failing to put together any attacking play and misplaced passes plaguing both sides.
After 15 minutes, City started to find its feet, as it started to put together passes and get around the Kings defence.
Nick Sissons was at times unstoppable for City, weaving in and out of the Kings defence.
Sissons set up the first goal of the game taking the ball through the Kings midfield, making it to the Kings circle then passing the ball for Dominic Melchers to deflect into the goal.
The rest of the half was controlled by City, with Kings missing passes and rarely able to build any momentum.
City went into halftime leading 1-0.
The second half was a lot messier than the first as both teams looked to be tired and lacking energy.
Despite that, City was able to hold on to the lead, staying slightly on top of Kings for most of the half.
City looked to seal the win when Matthew Greene scored from a penalty stroke to take the score to 2-0 with 15 minutes left.
Kings then started to play its best hockey of the game, and started to put pressure on the City goal.
Rory McLean scored in the last five minutes for Kings.
It looked as if City had exhausted itself and might give up its lead but it was able to regroup and hold on to win.
In the other men's games, Albany thumped University B 6-0, and University A beat Taieri Tuataras 4-1.
• City Highlanders beat St Hilda's 2-1 in a fast game in the women's premier competition.
The improving schoolgirls pushed the pace and showed tight skills in the first 10 minutes but their lack of ruthless composure on attack let the City team gradually encroach back into the midfield.
City Highlanders kept the foot on the throttle and despite some skilful work by St Hilda's defender Courtney Ross, the inevitable happened as City player Alex Irwin flipped the ball over the goalie.
The St Hilda's girls regrouped, playing with a strong structure after the break. However it was not long before City was back in the attacking 25m and looking dangerous.
In fact a shot went into the circle but was well cleared by the St Hilda's goalie. It became a midfield battle of who was first to the ball.
With a sudden turnaround of play, St Hilda's forward Kate Morris was in the circle and after a kerfuffle and the City goalie committing herself, Morris finished it off to even the scores.
Almost immediately, City took the ball very fast down the wing and Irwin picked it up and with a beautiful reverse stick shot scored the winning goal to round off an exceptional performance.
In other games, University A beat Momona A 2-1 and Taieri beat Kings A 5-0.
- Additional reporting by Shirley Gillett
