The Otago men slotted three goals that way to beat Auckland 4-0 on day three of the national hockey championships in Hamilton yesterday.
The win secured the defending champions top spot in pool A.
They will now play crossover games against Canterbury tomorrow and North Harbour on Friday.
Points from the round-robin are carried through to the crossover round and the two top-ranked teams will contest Saturday's final.
Canterbury topped pool B. They edged Wellington 3-2 yesterday and will be stern opposition, while North Harbour beat Hawke’s Bay 3-0 and also have plenty of talent.
Jordan Ward smacked in two of Otago's three goals from penalty corners.
The Otago women crashed to their third consecutive loss.
They got drawn in a stacked pool A but yesterday’s 5-1 loss to Wellington followed the 4-0 and 6-1 losses to Auckland and Canterbury respectively.
Otago actually started well and were much more competitive than the score suggests. Sophia Kersten scored in the ninth minute and they led 1-0 at the first break.
Wellington equalised through Minna-Rose Reid in the second period and took the lead early in the third period.
But a flurry of late goals — three in the final three minutes — blew the score out.
The Otago women will play Waikato in a bottom-four crossover game tomorrow at 1pm.
The Otago B men’s team also fell to their third consecutive loss.
South Canterbury banged in two quick goals just before halftime and added a third late in the match to clinch a 3-0 win.
They play Taranaki today, who beat South Canterbury in a shootout earlier in the tournament.
