Pepsi Hikers made an impressive outing in the 12th Annual Ventures Hockey Club Indoor Hockey Tournament in Trinidad and Tobago where they delivered two wins and suffered one loss to advance to the finals on Saturday evening at the Woodbrook Youth Facility, Hamilton Holder Street, Port of Spain.
The best male team on the Guyanese circuit for 2016 continued their dominance by dismantling Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force (TTDF) and then brushing aside Notre Dame before going down to Queens Park Cricket Club (QPCC) on their way to the semi-finals of the competition where they edged past Paragon.
In the first match up for the Guyanese boys, TTDF felt why Pepsi Hikers were dominant in Guyana as they stumbled to a 1-5 loss. Only Mickell Pierre was able to squeeze one past goalkeeper Jason Hoyte in the 26th Minute while Andrew Stewart scored twice for Hikers (3rd and 30th minutes) and Robert France (10th min.), Jamarj Assanah (16th min.) and Devin Munroe (39th min.) scored one goal apiece to see their side home.
The boys in green then returned in their second match to destroy Notre Dame 10-1 thanks to five goals from Aroydy Branford and a hat trick from Assanah.
The entire contest was dominated by Hikers as Branford started the barrage of goals in the 6th min. and then in the 12th min. before closing the first half with his hat trick in the 19th min. to see the score 3-0 by the half way point.
Aroydy BranfordRobert France
Parmanand Dindial picked up where Branford left off to open his account in the 23rd min. to much dismay of the home team.
This opened the door for Assanah to find his groove, blasting a powerful blow in the 27th min. and once more four minutes later. Chad Pedro scored the lone goal for Notre Dame in the 34th min. but it had been a little too late to recover from the huge deficit.
Assanah would then score his third for the night in the 36th minute as Brandford scored twice and France scored once inside the last three minutes of play.
In the third match for the visitors, the boys fought valiantly but surrendered a slim 6-4 match to QPCC. Jordan Reynos, Jordan Vieira and Darren Cowie saw their side lead the first half 4-2 with France (5th min.) and Stewart (19th min.) providing the resistance.
In the second half, Hikers fought with all they had in the tank to score twice but it wasn’t enough as QPCC score twice in that half as well.
Nevetheless, Hikers qualified for the semi finals where they disposed on Paragon 5-3.
Once again the pair of France and Branford proved to be too much for the Trinidadian team as France scored the first two goals, in the 7th and 16th minutes while Akim Toussaint score twice (3rd and 15th min.) to end the first half locked 2-2.
In the second half, Toussaint only scored once (36th min.) while Branford produced three blinders (22nd, 26th and 37th min.) to book their finals berth.
