After a closely fought opening half that saw Ashleigh Corby's finishing touch the only difference between the Bathurst rivals, Souths came out hard in the second stanza to seal victory against a tiring Pat's team.

The win takes Souths to the Easter break with four wins while the Saints have just the one victory.

However, it could have worked out differently on Saturday had Pat's made the most of some early chances.

The Saints caught Souths napping in the opening 10 minutes, winning several 50-50 balls to notch up early circle penetrations, one of which resulted in a shot hitting the post.

But from there Souths started to turn things around, keeping Pat's pinned in their own half.

After 11 minutes Emma Siejka made a break down the right side and put in a perfect cross that cut through two Pat's defenders to a waiting Corby.

The centre forward finished comfortably.

Souths came close to doubling their lead from a penalty corner, but stand-in Pat's goalkeeper Makenzie Newton came up with a good save.

It meant the result was still up for grabs as Souths entered the second half with a 1-0 lead, but soon Pat's hopes of a comeback faded.

Souths' Ali Stanford pinched the ball from Alana Webber shortly after the resumption and strolled into the circle, but Newton denied her with a diving save.

However, Stanford delivered from a penalty corner 14 minutes into the second half to make it 2-0.

With six minutes to go Stanford was involved again as her cross into the circle was picked up by Claire Alexander who sealed the deal.

Despite notching up another four competition points, Souths coach Damien Carter believes his side could have let the match get away from them had Pat's made the most of their early chances.

"They were probably giving themselves a couple of chances in the first half and it would have given them a boost if they got a goal," he said.

"Luckily for us they didn't get that. They fluctuated a bit in the second half, they had a little spurt of five minutes and that was it.

"You've got to be happy with four wins and two losses going into the Easter break."

Souths had more chances in the final 10 minutes to add to their three-goal lead, but Carter was happy his side managed to pick themselves up for the second half.

"We probably frustrated ourselves in the first half by not getting our crisp passing that we normally do," he said.

"We had a few chances to make the lead a bit bigger towards the end there, but Makenzie Newton played really well in goal and we had a couple of bad decisions with the ball in front of goal."

While defeated, Pat's still gave coach Bec Clayton something to smile about.

"Something that we've worked hard on through the week is how important it is to hold your structure and mark your player. We did all that fairly well today," she said.

"There were a couple of times we sort of let them get away. The improvement from last week, that bodes well especially with a few people to come back into the side."

BATHURST SOUTHS 3 (Ashleigh Corby, Ali Stanford, Claire Alexander) def BATHURST ST PAT'S 0