Mark Sargeant was the hero for the Pitbulls as they squeezed past Saints on Friday evening in the Lucozade Indoor Hockey League at the National Gymnasium.
The national Under-21 captain, just returning from an injury break, amassed all four of the Pitbulls winning goals to outscore the entire Saints team by one goal for the 4-3 victory. Saints were not without their chances as they went ahead by 2-1 in the 21st minute with goals from Kevin Edwards and Ato Green.
Sargeant would level the scores for the Pitbulls in the 32nd minute with his second penalty corner goal of the match, but junior national Hilton Chester nudged Saints ahead once more in the 35th minute. Sargeant would have the final word as he rounded out his four goal haul in the dying minutes, all from accurately placed penalty corner shots. Saints pressured the Pitbulls to the end, but squandered several close chances and would come up just shy of matching their opposition on the evening.
A brilliant opening goal in the sixth minute by Bounty GCC #6 Kevin Spencer marked the sign of an entertaining battle to come as his side battled Old Fort in the second match of a double-header evening.
Although GCC seemed comfortably in control during the opening minutes of the match, the talented Aderemi ‘Dove’ Simon exploded down the court on a counterattack that caught the GCC side asleep four minutes later to produce the equaliser against the momentum of play.
Old Fort seemed to grow in confidence with their equalising goal and a Dwight Sullivan pass to Jason DeSantos in the scoring area saw DeSantos carve his way into the GCC goal and onto the score sheet in the 15th minute to give Old Fort a 2-1 lead.
The match seemed to turn in Old Fort’s favour at this stage as the GCC strikers succumbed to the desperation of needing to find a spark from somewhere. Young Daniel Hooper, who had been having a solid performance for the Bourda side, succeeded on one of several individual runs at the Old Fort defence to draw the score even at 2-2.
Simon however, would seal the deal for Old Fort with a winner seven minutes before the end. GCC looked purposeful in the final minutes of the match but fine goalkeeping from Tony Cole kept their chances out and secured the 3-2 victory for the red and white.
