Highlanders cruise to finals victory

The City Highlanders set the benchmark all season and breezed to a 4-0 win against the Taieri Tigers in the final on Saturday.

Coach Ben Varkalis described the victory as "pretty comfortable".

"It was a good tight team performance yesterday, which added to that feeling," he said.

The Highlanders won 13 of their 14 round-robin games, so were favoured to win the final.

"The girls were pretty confident. They had had a good season and they all did their jobs, which ended in a really fruitful result."

The Tigers matched-up well during the opening exchanges, but the Highlanders netted two late goals in the first quarter and did not relinquish control of the match.

"That really wrestled away the momentum of the game. We were able to be fairly composed and just work our way through to the end and pick up a couple of more."

Striker Billie Crowe opened the scoring with a deflection from a penalty corner. The second was a lovely piece of work from the impressive Maddie Peel.

She worked her way into the circle and clipped it nicely across the keeper into the far side of the goal.

The central midfielder was one of the standouts for the Highlanders. Defender Georgia Allardice was solid at the back and Crowe drilled two goals in a strong match.

Danielle Wheeler created plenty in the midfield as well.

The second quarter was evenly contested. Pippa Croft was called on to make some good saves for the Highlanders.

"She made sure we didn’t give them a chance."

Macka Harvey completed the scoring when she slapped in shot in the fourth quarter.