Plains Rangers and Ohope Beach Sharks followed on from their hard-fought league game on Saturday, to face each other again on Tuesday evening in the Miller Cup. Conditions were good under the lights: cool and still, and a decent sized crowd turned up to enjoy the rematch.
Ohope started out very strongly, flooding through the midfield and putting Rangers under a lot of pressure. After fifteen minutes they made the break-through. Hardworking striker Ben Howe was upended in the penalty area and he converted the resulting spot kick confidently. Ohope continued to press and went close several times. Late in the half Sione Lotu subbed on up front for Rangers and this changed the dynamics and the game became end-to-end. Lotu soon won the ball off the defence and scored, to even the game up. Ohope bounced back and should have scored, a shot went over the bar from only a few metres out. Next Lotu put a shot over the bar after a mesmerising dribble by fellow striker Elijah Wetting. Half time came, with the score locked up at 1 – 1.
Both teams came out of the blocks well in the second half. A great juggling run ended with another shot over the bar for Ohope. Fifteen minutes into the half Rangers hit the front. A corner floated over and defender Sam McPherson used his body well to bundle the ball over the line. Rangers put a lot of pressure on their opponents, with midfielders Hamish Wilde and James Hart moving the ball around well and up from Kobi Wetting and Lotu giving the defence no let up. With ten minutes to go a Kobi Wetting tackle won the ball, fed Ben McPherson, who put in a great cross for Ollie Fort rampaging down the left. Fort's header went wide but five minutes later he scored from the penalty sport after Lotu was brought down in the box. The final score: Ohope Beach Sharks 1, Plains Rangers 3.
Rangers would be pleased to move on to the next round in the Cup, but Ohope would be disappointed they couldn't make their early dominance count, and will move into the Bowl competition. Rangers' player of the day was Sam McPherson, with other top performances from Lotu, the Wetting brothers and Fort.
This Saturday Rangers men are at home in a tough league game, against Tauranga City Juggernauts. Kick off at Edgecumbe is at 2.30pm.


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