The Hikers Cadets stamped their authority on the Men’s first division competition on Tuesday night in the GT&T National Indoor Hockey championships as they demolished last year’s finalists, Old Fort by an 8-4 margin.
While both teams were held scoreless in the opening ten minutes, Cadets’ Aroydy Branford continued his goal scoring form of the previous evening with a penalty corner flick in the 11th minute to put his team ahead. Old Fort then wrested the lead briefly as Dwight McCalman and Aderemi “Dove” Simon rattled in a field goal each to make it 2-1 for Old Fort.
Cadets’ Leon Bacchus, lurking in the Old Fort scoring circle, found his form at the right moment as he registered a personal hat-trick in the following ten minutes with teammate Michael Harding adding one more. A tired Old Fort managed two more goals in their attempted comeback before full time through Ascofu Simon and Dwight Sullivan, but a single strike by young Cadet Seon Sookhai and a double by Cadets’ captain Jamarj Assanah kept the result beyond doubt at 8-4.
The mighty GCC Tigers seemed on course to retain the trophy for a fifth straight year when they defeated the Hikers Divas 3-1 in their Ladies tie. The two top seeds played their usual exciting game to the melody of an excited crowd cheering on every play.
Kerensa Fernandes opened the GCC account in the third minute when she was first onto a loose rebound to take the score to 1-0. Trisha Woodroffe then completed a penalty corner that comprised of a plethora of passes that put the Hikers’ defense in disarray and captain Sonia Jardine got a well-deserved field goal in the second half to complete the Tigers tally of three.
The Hikers seemed intent to make a challenge when national striker Cora Towler made a brilliant solo run eleven minutes to give her team its first goal of the match, but the game would remain at 3-1 for the remainder of time giving the Tigers an easy victory.
Teenage star Aliyah Gordon rained in six of the 15 goals that the GCC Spartans would score as they crushed newcomers Old Fort Heats by 15-0 in the other Ladies match-up of the evening. Samantha Fernandes added four goals for the Spartans and Carol Caine three, while Ashley DeGroot and Gabriella Xavier scored one each.
The GCC second division side finally found their form when they upstaged Saints 6-4. Saints however, with improved performances in every tournament, kept the game competitive to the very end. GCC seemed in for an easy night when Steven Xavier and Eric Hing, with a field goal each, put them up by two in the first eight minutes of the match.
Diminutive striker Hilton Chester and teammate Kwesi Lewis however, each found the back of the GCC net to even the score within the next four minutes. The game then shifted back and forth as the two young energetic teams went head to head in an effort to secure the victory.
GCC managed four more through Andrew Xavier, Mark Sargeant and a double by Hing to complete his hat-trick, while Chester added a second for Saints and captain Joel Hunte completed their four-goal haul with a single.
In the lone veterans’ clash, a GCC side littered with former national players, outclassed Old Fort 6-3.
Guyana Hockey Board president, Philip Fernandes, was in fine form as he slammed home a bevy of four goals for GCC, while Damon Woodroffe and Alan Fernandes added one each. Old Fort seemed to be making a comeback shortly after the resumption of the second half as they scored all three of their goals shortly after resumption but failed to continue the trend as the game progressed. Dwayne Allen, Ivor Thompson and John Abrams each scored one for Old Fort.
Matches will continue every evening at the National Gymnasium until Sunday when the finals for all four divisions will be contested from 16:00 hours.
