The Tasman Districts men’s and women’s teams both reached the top four at their respective national tournaments in Wellington, the men coming away with a silver medal.
Although the Boars fell at the final hurdle, beaten 2-1 by Bay of Plenty in the tier three decider, they put together a superb series of results over last week’s action.
It started on Sunday, Tasman showing their scoring prowess with a 6-0 win over Southland, goals scored by Ian Gurden (2), Carl Quinn, Jay Quinn, Ben Harris and Elijah Graham.
The next day they racked up another comprehensive win, downing Whanganui 5-0, Carl Quinn and Will Nichol bagging doubles while Duncan Matheson claimed the fifth.
Things got tougher on Tuesday, the Boars drawing 2-2 with Taranaki in regular time, Harris and Carl Quinn scoring the goals. The northerners prevailed 2-0 in the resulting shootout.
However, the Boars bounced back quickly in their quarterfinal on Thursday, beating the NZ Army side 4-1 with goals to Ben Harris (2), Zach Adams and Nichol.
On Friday they took on Central Otago in their semifinal seeking a coveted final position and came away with a 2-1 victory.
The match was scoreless until the final quarter when Nichol notched two field goals within seven minutes of each other. Although Central Otago replied a few minutes later from a penalty corner, the Boars held on to book a date at the “big dance”.
Bay of Plenty proved a tenacious opponent in Saturday’s final. Skipper Toby Bowden put the southern side ahead just before halftime with a penalty stroke, but BoP levelled in the third quarter from a PC then notched the winner in the 59th minute.
The Tasman Tigers women’s side, who played in tier two after winning tier three last season, also reached the play-offs, two narrow losses consigning them to fourth placing.
They opened their campaign in style, with a 4-1 win against Northland, goals to Jess Kelly, Rebecca Kersten, Sophie White and Tigers debutant Molly Williams.
On Monday they went down 5-1 to Canterbury Barracudas, Tigers’ goal scored by Alexa Bryant.
They rebounded well on Tuesday, downing Waikato B 3-0, goals going to captain Kersten, Duffy and Amy O’Neill.
After a day off, the Tigers purred their way into the semifinals with a 3-0 win over North Harbour in the quarterfinals, Kelly (2) and Kersten among the goals.
On Friday it was rematch with the Barracudas.
This time the result was the same although Tasman held the scoreline to 0-3.
Their defeat put them into a third/fourth play-off against Auckland B, the only goal of a tightly-contested encounter coming in the 50th minute, leaving Tasman to reflect on a solid effort in a tougher tier.
