The proverbial smoke has begun to clear, and there are signs emerging of clear front-runners in the 2019 Noble House Seafoods’ “Goals Galore” Indoor Hockey Championships, play of which continu
Yutesh Dhanpaul and sponsor of the Bachan Cricket Club, Subas Persaud, owner of Dx Sporting Store
ed on Wednesday evening at the National Gymnasium.
The Hikers Generals pulled off their third win of the men’s competition to remain unbeaten and on top of Pool ‘B’ with 6 points, while Vintage GCC and the PEPSI Hikers lead Pool ‘A’ with similar records.
On the ladies’ side, the GBTI GCC Tigers rebounded from a loss in their opening match to lead the table with six points after their victory over YMCA OFHC Bellatrix.
The Hikers Generals took to the floor against the SHC Splinters in the men’s Pool ‘B’ with both teams on an even 9-goal handicap. The Splinters, who had disposed of defending champs Bounty GCC on the opening night, were a sound challenge for the Generals, who were also coming off of a victory over the YMCA OFHC Top Form.
The General controlled the game from the outset, scoring two goals in the first half from Devin Munroe and Sherwyn Caesar, compared to just a single from Hilton Chester, Captain of the Splinters.
Nkhruma Hutson drew the scores even with an early second-half goal for the Splinters, but Munroe put the game beyond reach with two more goals for the Generals, to complete his hat trick; while Caesar added a second in the closing minutes.
The 14–12 victory moves the Generals to the top of the Pool going into the fourth evening of the competition.
The highlight match of the evening was a thrilling, high-paced encounter between defending champs Bounty GCC and the talented YMCA OFHC Top Form. With Top Form enjoying a 2-goal advantage from the start, GCC drew the scores even in the first fifteen minutes through a double by Kareem McKenzie.
GCC then went one ahead one minute before the half when Shaquille Leung slammed home his team’s third, to leave scores at 6-5 in favour of Bounty GCC.
Omar Hopkinson drew the scores for the second time in the first minute of resumption with a penalty corner for Top Form, and young prolific goal-scorer Warren Williams added a second to move Top Form ahead by one.
The Bounty boys drew even for the third time through Meshach Sargeant, and then a fourth and final time as Hopkinson and Kevin Spencer scored a final goal each for Top Form and GCC respectively.
After a close and hard-fought match, the teams had to settle for an 8-8 draw.
Two YMCA teams faced each other in the next men’s fixture, which saw the YMCA OFHC Champs edge the YMCA OFHC Pacesetters by 16–15.
The victory was the first of the competition for the Champs. The PEPSI Hikers continued their form with a 13–10 beating of the SHC Slick Sticks.
With the Slick Sticks enjoying an 8-goal handicap, it took the Hikers an effort down to the last five minutes to secure the victory, but they made it a productive five minutes to take their total to 13. Aroydy Branford was once again the leading scorer of the match, with 7 goals.
In the ladies’ competition, defending champs GBTI GCC Tigers dominated newcomers YMCA OFHC Bellatrix with a 16–9 victory. With the Bellatrix beginning the match with a nine-goal handicap and the Tigers with three goals, the scores were even by the half. The Tigers continued their onslaught with seven more unanswered goals in the second half of the match.
Saints and YMCA OFHC Wolves were the other ladies’ matchup of the evening, and both sides began with an even 5 goals handicap. There were several near misses, and neither team was able to score, thus the match finished on a 5-5 stalemate.
