Two goals was the biggest winning margin in a bumper opening round of Hockey Albury-Wodonga division one finals at Albury Hockey Centre on Sunday.
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In the men’s matches, defending premiers Norths booked their place in the grand final with a 3-2 victory against Magpies.
The top two sides in the league feature more than 10 Spitfires players and the game didn’t disappoint.
Norths scored first thanks to Ian Beath, but Magpies evened it up soon after via a classy drag flick from Grant Sawyer.
Magpies had a 2-1 lead early in the second half after Sawyer’s second.
However, a dominant display from Justin Ellis led to Norths scoring the next two goals to run out the game 3-2 winners.
Magpies meet United in the preliminary final after they edged out Falcons 3-2 in a sudden death battle.
United were the form team heading into finals, but it appeared Falcons had their measure.
Charley Wallace converted two penalty strokes to put Falcons in control, before United’s David Foster led from the front to claw one back prior to the break.
The second half was hard-fought with both teams aware a loss would mean the end of their season.
United rallied with a goal from Henry Hall to force extra time, and, less than five minutes into golden goal, Foster scored his second to get them through.
In the women’s, Falcons got themselves into another grand final with a 2-1 triumph against Wodonga.
Wodonga dominated the first half but were only able to put away one goal from a nice pass by Hayley Hart to Danni McLeish.
Falcons came back after half-time and showed why they were the top side all year.
A penalty in the circle saw Falcons awarded a stroke, which was converted by Jess Madden, while some great positioning by Meghan Cockayne allowed her find the back of the net to seal a 2-1 victory for her side.
Magpies set up a meeting with Wodonga after claiming a 2-0 result against Norths in the elimination final.
A breakaway from Nikita Nelson and strong support play saw Magpies lead 1-0, which was how it stayed at the half.
With seven minutes left in the game, Magpies scored again through Eunyoung Kim from a short corner to keep their season alive for another week.
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