Flora GCC Spartans complete three-peat

The Flora GCC Spartans Female Hockey Team created history last Sunday evening when they won their third consecutiveUnder-21 female Magnolias Indoor Championships at the Wood brook Youth Centre in Port-of-Spain,Trinidad.The Guyanese side  flew into the twin-islandrepublic on November12, 2010 to contest the weekend tournament foronly the third year sincethe under-21 competition started.In the inaugural competitiontwo years ago,an inexperienced GCC had shocked the teams of Trinidad, the highly ranked hockey-playing island, by carting off the2008 trophy.Their repeat of thissuccess in 2009 was justas surprising and unexpected,but a third andunprecedented victoryin all competitions of thetournament has been thesweetest one yet.With the loss of captainand key midfielderTrisha Woodroffe, theyoung side knew thatit would be particularlydifficult this year tomatch the success towhich they have becomeaccustomed.In their openingmatch against hostsMagnolias, GCC tookan early two-goal lead,only to see it slip awayin the fading minutes,with Magnolias equalizingin the last four minutes,and then scoring awinner through a penaltystroke at the finalbuzzer.According to coachPhilip Fernandes, theteam was disappointed,but not heartbroken, bythe loss, as they suffereda bit of ill luck, includinghitting the goalpost noless than four times duringthe match.The following day,Saturday, they won twoof the three scheduledgames, dishing out a3- 1 defeat to Venturesand a 5-0 drubbing toMagnolias, to whomthey had lost the previousevening.The tournament hassplit the six competingteams into two groups,and has scheduled teamsto play each other twicein the pool round. Theirfinal match on Saturday,however, saw theGuyanese succumb toVentures 0-1 in a matchthat had little bearing ontheir progress, as theyhad already made it tothe semi- finals.The semi-final matchwas contested againstParagon. It proved moredifficult than anticipated,as the Trinidadianside took an early leadthrough a goal-mouthscramble. GCC seemedthe more purposeful sideand dominated the secondhalf, eventually gettingtheir breakthroughfrom the inspirationalcaptain Gabriella Xavier,who unsettled the netswith an accurate penaltycorner flick.The teams finishedthe match at one goalapiece, leaving the outcometo be decided ona penalty stroke shootout.Goalkeeper AlysaXavier proved to be thestar of the match by savingmany of the opposingpenalties, and evenscoring one of her own.It required the secondflick of sudden death,however, for GCC to securethe spot in the final;as defender MarzanaFiedtkou slammedhome her stroke followinga fine save of theParagon striker’s effortby Xavier.The final againstthe highly touted NotreDame was another nailbiter.GCC’s DominiqueDeGroot completed awell- executed buildupplay to finish withaplomb, after getting bythe Notre Dame’s goalkeeper.GCC had to defendtheir lead for most ofthe match against a sidethat boasted many ofTrinidad’s junior nationals,and one Barbadosinternational as a guestplayer.Notre Dame piled onthe pressure in the secondhalf of play, and createdseveral opportunitiesat the GCC net; butsteady defending fromthe Fiedtkou sisters –Talia and Marzana –along with another superbperformance byAlysa Xavier in the goal,matched every attack ofthe opponent.It was GCC’sSamantha Fernandes,however, who came closestto scoring and extendingher team’s leadwith a swift counterattackthat missed theempty Notre Dame goalby inches.The final buzzer sawthe young Flora GCCside crowned championsfor their third consecutivewinner’s trophy.Alysa Xavier cartedoff the Most ValuableGoalkeeper’s prize forthe second year in a row.The young side will beeligible to compete withoutlosing any players tothe age barrier for an additionaltwo years, andare expected to be clearfavourites in 2011.