Despite playing with a strong southerly wind at its back, the home side did not seriously look like scoring in the second half, until Cant struck the equaliser.
Her goal came courtesy of a blunder by Auckland goalkeeper Rebecca Rolls, whose mis hit clearance fell to Cant to fire into the back of the net.
Competition points, let alone goals, have been hard to come by for Football South in the ASB women's league in recent years, so there was no surprise to see joy on the faces of the home players when the final whistle went.
Earlier, Football South took a surprise lead inside the first couple of minutes, when Una Madden punished the visitors for a sloppy back pass.
Madden still had plenty of work to do after collecting the stray pass, but showed good composure to slide the ball past Rolls and give her side the 1-0 lead.
The visiting team almost equalised 10min later, when Jasmine Pereira found space inside the box, but her header struck the crossbar and was saved.
However, Auckland only had to wait another 8min to find its equaliser, courtesy of a Jessica Snell corner kick that held in the wind and was chested in by Megan Robertson at the far post.
It was not the first time South goalkeeper Jade Middleditch had trouble with probing Snell corner kicks, as the strong wind made life difficult for the players.
Auckland went ahead through Pereira 5min later, when the classy forward broke free and fired past Middleditch at the near post.
The Football South keeper will be the first to admit she should have done better, as the ball spilled through her fingers and into the back of the net.
No further damage was done in the first half, but the home side did have to withstand a raft of free kicks and corner kicks in the last 5min of the half.
Despite playing into the wind, Auckland was full of running and dominated for the majority of the second half.
However, the North Islanders were guilty of snatching at chances in front of goal, and Middleditch also made some good saves. A familiar face came off the Auckland bench early in the second spell, when former Columba College pupil Hanna English replaced Snell on the wing.
English, a former national secondary schools cross country champion and one of Otago's best young athletes in recent years, moved to Auckland at the start of the year to concentrate on football.
• The Southern United youth team continued its unbeaten start to the national youth league with a comprehensive 8-1 win against Wellington Phoenix at the Caledonian Ground yesterday.
Forward Ben Kiore netted half of his team's goals, and had a hat trick inside the first 10 minutes of the match.
His fourth goal put his side 7-0 up after 20min, to effectively put the game to bed well before halftime.
