North Harbour were up until this evening one loss away from ending their golden era - having won the 2012 Under 18 and 2010 Under 16 Pan Pacs. Their hopes have been revitalised after their win tonight in their home pool - Millennium.
LAST DITCH BID: North Harbour U20 Women through to quarter finals
After 19 exclusions and a penalty, the scores were locked at 12-12 with one minute and four seconds left in the game. North Harbour coach Matt Payne called a time-out, letting Grace Tobin score her fourth goal of the game - putting their foot through the door to the quarter finals.
But it wasn't over there, Conqueror's vocal coach Chris Coleman called a time-out with 49 seconds left to play. His team failed to capitalise, letting North Harbour gain possession - seeing Tobin score her fifth goal of the match. Gabby Oloapu managed to net another with 13 seconds left on the clock, allowing coach Matt Payne to take a breath - they had dodged a bullet.
"We had to fight really hard - we had a couple of girls kicked out on 3. The other girls had to step up and under a lot of pressure managed to finish it off just right at the end when it counted." said Payne, "the things we'd done wrong in the first half we got right in the last quarter, which was the difference."
North Harbour will play Canberra Academy tomorrow in the second quarter-final, 11:30am at West Wave tomorrow.
"They've been on the other side [of the draw], we haven't actually seen them play. But obviously they've had a couple of good wins so they're certainly not easy-beats that's for sure." said Payne.
TIGHT LAST MINUTE: North Harbour pull it together in the end
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