The chase for titles remains tight in both the WaiBOP Premiership and Championship after the latest round of games.
Waikato Unicol maintained their lead in the Premiership but slipped up in the Championship, losing 2-1 to Tauranga City whose winning goal came in added time.
Here’s our round-up of action from the WaiBOP region’s top competitions:
WaiBOP Premiership
Waikato Unicol stay atop the Premiership after an 8-1 drubbing of Hamilton Wanderers.
Reuben Henderson scored a hat-trick for Unicol with two of his goals coming in added time.
Taupo, who had a bye, and Otumoetai are tied with Unicol on 30 league points but have played more games.
Meanwhile, Tawhiri Ball grabbed four goals for Te Awamutu (two of them from the penalty spot) in their 6-2 win against West Hamilton United.
WaiBOP Championship
Claudelands Rovers goalkeeper James Gatenby-Hinton had a tough day in his side’s 6-0 loss at home to Cambridge.
The first two goals conceded were judged to be own goals, credited to him.
They were the only goals of the first half but Cambridge players got their own names on the scoresheet in the second spell with Adam Brady, Aaron Huesser (2) and Wade Ellis securing victory in the local derby.
Tokoroa’s Chris Teague scored a hat-trick and still came out on the losing side, when his side lost 4-3 at Taupo.
WaiBOP W-League
Melville United beat WaiBOP W-League leaders Otumoetai United 3-2 in the upset of the round.
Having won only two of their previous 10 games, Melville faced an Otumoetai United side with a 100% winning start to the season.
Playing at their Gower Park home, Melville got off to a good start, and scored through Zaineh Abdelrazeq in the 7th minute.
However Brea Venimore scored twice for Otumoetai United, giving them a 2-1 lead at half-time.
Libby McMillan levelled for Melville on the hour.
With only four minutes to go, Fatima Ali scored the winner for Melville.
Other games went to form with wins to Lakes FC and Claudelands Rovers.
Results
Games played Saturday July 16, 2022
WaiBOP Premiership
Otumotetai 4 (Caelan Fraher 17′, 41′, Santiago Gadea 67′, Jonny Hill 83′)
Papamoa 3 (Vincent Callister 53′, 71′, Joshua Vialoux 68′)
Melville United 4 (Campbell Halley 16′, 59′, Jamie Walker 22′, Micheal Cosgrave 25′)
Ngongotaha 1 (Nathan Monne 88′)
West Hamilton United 2 (John Cameron 25′, Anas Mohamed 32′)
Te Awamutu 6 (Tawhiri Ball 4′, 35′ pen, 70′ pen, 86′, Marc Glenister 23′, Haydn Roil 23′)
Hamilton Wanderers 1 (Tom Yetsenga 90′)
Waikato Unicol 8 (Jacob Robb 16′, 47′, 86′, Riley Rigden 20′, Thomas Wright 35′, Reuben Henderson 71′, 90’+2′, 90’+3′)
Standings
WaiBOP Championship
Otumotetai 5 (Dylan Monteiro 10′, 11′, Chaz Picton 52′, 90’+2′, Caleb Gilchrist 76′)
Papamoa 3 (Morgan Wellsbury 18′, 41′, Casey Andrew 48′)
Taupo 4 (Finn Giddy 33′, 70′, David Floyd 57′, Taylor Long 70′)
Tokoroa 3 (Chris Teague 34′, 76′, 82′)
Matamata Swifts 1 (Harrison Conner 62′)
Te Puke United 0
Claudelands Rovers 0
Cambridge 6 (own goals 2′, 27′, Adam Brady 52′, Aaron Huesser 63′, 90′, Wade Ellis 70′)
Tauranga City 2 (own goal 12′, Logan Wright-Webb 90’+1′)
Waikato Unicol 1 (Krishaant Singh 6′)
Standings
WaiBOP W-League
Games played Sunday July 17, 2022
Lakes 2 (Brooke Barclay 50′, Alexa Harvey 70′)
Waikato Unicol 1 (Mia Richmond 90′)
Melville United 3 (Zaineh Abdelrazeq 7′, Libby McMillan 60′, Fatima Ali 86′)
Otumoetai United 2 (Brea Venimore 26′, 41′)
Claudelands Rovers 5 (Stella Neems 16′, own goal 34′, Ilaria Pace 47′, Rhiannon Jones 51′, Mia Wilkie 81′)
Otumoetai 0
Standings
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