Petroc one

Okehampton ladies’

firsts 6

Newton Abbot ladies 3

NEWTON Abbot made it clear from the start that they were not going down without a fight and for the first five minutes mounted a strong attack taking top of the table Okehampton by surprise.

However, strong defence and by goalkeeper Alice Wiseman kept them at bay. The visitors soon regained their normal form and it was not long before Jess Medland opened the scoring for Oke. Newton Abbot continued to fight allowing backs Nicky Pedrick and Carol Taylor to show off their excellent channel and block skills working well as a team.

Okehampton displayed some excellent passing skills, laying the ball off quickly and keeping possession allowing runs forward into the scoring D which Hannah Whitely consolidated with two goals.

At half time Newton Abbot were yet to score but came out fighting in the second half, again keeping defenders Nicola Stoneman, Sophie Whitely and player of the match Louise Weller busy.

Good team work and hard work in the middle kept out a number of attacks — however, persistent Newton Abbot broke through and scored. This only made Okehampton want to score more and Jo Moppet made a superb run to keep the ball on the pitch, then passing it beautifully to Hannah Whitely to slot into the goal.

Jo Moppet then gained her own goal from a penalty corner where again Okehampton showed passing pays off, doing one-twos in the D and scoring. Newton Abbot managed to get two goals back but it was not enough to defeat Okehampton.

* The Okehampton ladies also played in Devon trophy semi final on Sunday and beat Mannamead 6-2. The final will be April 16 against Plym Valley.