GTT National Indoors
The second night of the GTT National Indoor Hockey Championships was steamy and entertaining as members of the audience witnessed the intense clashes between the participating clubs.
Defending champions of the Ladies First Division, Woodpecker Hikers battled against YMCA Old Fort which ended with a 2-1 victory for Hikers. GBTI GCC Spice overcame Saints women 2-0. In the First-Division male category, the defending champions Pepsi Hikers easily saw off Saints with a 7-3 victory. In the Second-Division category, YMCA Old Fort Top Form defeated Bounty GCC the Sequel 3- 0, while Saints Sensations fought off Hikers Cadets 3-1 and in the veterans’ category Bounty GCC Vintage secured a thrilling 5-4 victory over YMCA Old Fort Hot Shotz.
In the ladies’ First Division, the experienced Maria Munroe opened the scoring for Hikers in the third minute with a penalty corner which whistled past Shanice Peters in the goal for Old Fort. Maria Munroe again doubled the lead for the defending champions with another impressive penalty corner strike. Hikers seemed to have the game under control. However, the skilled Minsodia Culpepper refused to give up and in the 35th minute, scored the lone goal from a penalty corner for Old Fort. GBTI GCC Spice secured a hard-fought victory over Saints with two goals to none coming from experienced defender Tiffany Solomon with a carefully placed penalty corner and Sandy Roopnarine’s field goal in the 18th and 38th minute of the match respectively.
The men’s sole First-Division clash for the night saw goals raining down from Hikers against a youthful Saints team. Aroydy Branford netted a helmet trick of goals (four goals) out of his team’s seven-goal tally with support goals coming from Robert France, Randy Hope, and Devin Munroe.
Undeterred by the goal difference, the young and enthusiastic Saints gained some momentum in the second half of the match with Hilton Chester, their Captain, scoring two goals in the 32nd and 37th minutes of the game.
GCC Vintage’s Kevin Spencer led the team’s blistering performance from the beginning of the match, scoring a field goal after a skilful display of stick work in the first minute and went out to secure a hat-trick against YMCA Old Fort Hot Shotz with goals in the eighth and 28th minutes. With Devin Hooper penalty corner taken swiftly in the fifth minute, GCC Vintage were up 3-0. It was not long after, however, that Old Fort found the back of the net with two goals from Jason DeSantos and one from Aderemi Simon in the 14th, 15th and 19th minutes, levelling the game 3-3 in an exciting comeback. Despite the pressure, Dwayne Scott took GCC forward once in the 21st minute to 4-3. Kevin Spencer’s goal would see his team’s tally extend to 5-3 in the 28th minute. Old Fort was relentless in their fight and Dwight Sullivan found the back of the net in the final minute of the game. GCC Vintage were able to fight off the final seconds of Old Fort’s attack and came out victorious.
In the Second-Division matches, Saints Sensations secured a victory over Hikers Cadets with three goals from Baraka Garnett, Captain Tivesarid Garnett and Hilmar Chester. Hikers Cadets’ lone goal came from Brian Asregado.
YMCA Old Fort Top Form easily defeated Bounty GCC the Sequel with their three unanswered field goals from Omar Hopkinson, Warren Williams and Ronaldo Simmons.
Matches continue all week at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall with the finals set for Sunday evening.
