The Lucozade hockey tournament continued at the weekend with four thrilling matches at the National Gymnasium, Mandela Avenue.
The first contest happened between Bounty’s GCC and the Hikers. Hikers dominated the first half and fans were sure that it would be another pushover. But, by the beginning of the second half Hikers’ three goals (scored by Robert France, Devin Munroe and Randy Hope) seemed a distant memory as Peter De Groot (two field goals) and Steven Xavier (one field goal) of GCC evened the score.
The Hikers realised that this match would be no walk in the park and they went into overdrive scoring three more goals within ten minutes of GCC’s last goal. Robert France, Andrew Stewart and Shane Samuels of the Hikers showed no mercy with their field goals and penalty corners.
The Bounty team tried to save face with a 40th minute penalty stroke by Kevin Spencer, but it wasn’t enough to stop their 4-6 defeat.
Match number two saw the females of GCC Spartans take on the females of Old Fort. Despite the low score, the game was far from uneventful as both teams showed formidable skills.
However, the Spartans were victorious with a final score of 2-0. Shebiki Baptiste laid the ground work in the first minute of play with a smashing field goal and Marzana Fiedtkou forced a penalty corner in the 21st minute to eventually seal Old Fort’s fate.
The third match of the evening brought the Hikers against the Old Fort B team and it was quite a spectacle. Devin Munroe of the Hikers got the ball rolling when he scored their first goal in the second minute of play.
His teammate, Shane Samuels, added to the lead with a field goal just eight minutes later. Old Fort though, refused to accept those statistics and a mere few seconds after Samuels’ goal Deon Carew penetrated the Hikers’ defenses with a field goal and a penalty corner.
At the half, the Hikers led 3-2 due to Aroydy Brandford’s field goal in the 12th minute. When play resumed the crowd saw that the Hikers had embodied a different temperament because the eight goals that they scored in the second half confirmed that they meant business.
Andrew Stewart (21st minute), Robert France (23rd), Randy Hope (26th), Devin Munroe (30th) and Shane Samuels (30th) showed that ball rotation is no issue in the Hikers’ camp. The final score was 10-2 in favour of the Hikers.
The final match of the night saw the Old Fort A team against the Saints squad and it was just as exhilarating as the previous bouts of the evening. Jason De Santos of Old Fort made a penalty corner in the fourth minute of play and Kevin Edwards of Saints responded with a field goal just a minute later.
Saints took the lead three minutes later as Joel Hunte scored a penalty, but it was not long lived as De Santos of Old Fort made another penalty count. Jason Clarke of Old Fort took the half time score to 3-2 when he scored a 17th minute field goal.
In the second half of the match, Saints started strong with a penalty from Hilton Chester, but Old Fort’s Jason De Santos and Chris Low Khan kept the lead at a two-goal difference.
That lead would last to the end as each team added one more goal to their tally before the final buzzer sounded with Yonnick Peters (Saints) and Jason De Santos (Old Fort) being the scorers. The final count was 6-4 as Old Fort took the victory.
Games will continue on this afternoon at the National Gymnasium from 17:00h.
