Tamworth’s Amber Witney provided the golden strike for the NSW State side as they claimed the national under-15’s girls title in dramatic fashion at the Illawarra Hockey Centre.
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The final took a twist when with just seven seconds remaining Victoria’s Alexandra Wansbrough scored to level the scores at 1-all and send the game to a shoot-out.
Witney stepped up to take the first shot for NSW and nailed it, but after five shots apiece the two sides still couldn’t be separated.
The shoot-out then went to sudden death.
Victoria had the first shot but the NSW goalkeeper made the save, meaning that if NSW were successful they would win the gold.
The duties fell to Witney and she made no mistake.
New England’s Chelsea Thornton was also part of a side which beat Northern Territory 6-1, Victoria White 3-1, Tasmania 4-nil, Queensland Maroon 5-2, and drew 1-all with Queensland Gold, before overpowering Western Australia Gold 3-2 in their semi-final.
“They played phenomenally well,” coach Liam Cole told Fairfax Media.
The State boys side containing Tamworth’s Nick O’Connor and New England’s Rohan Lawrence meanwhile defeated Victoria Blue 3-1 to win the bronze.
O’Connor scored the second of NSW’s goals giving them a 2-nil lead.
As has been the custom in recent years NSW fielded two boys and girls sides.
Tamworth’s Dakotah Barnett-Suey and Maeve Galvin played for the Blues girls and New England’s Tyler McCann the Blues boys, while Oliver McGill (Tamworth) was drafted by the Northern Territory.
