Ladies champs- Pizza Hut GCC
Old Fort Damn displayed an impressive performance of hockey to win their first Open Men’s division title in some time, while the Pizza Hut GCC Ladies once again dominated the Women’s competition. While GCC enjoyed the lion’s share of trophies with wins in six of the festival’s nine competitions, Old Fort’s senior men’s showing was matched by their victorious Under-17 boys.
Saints Hockey Club put in their most impressive performance to date as the young club secured the top spot in the Under-14 Boys division and made appearances in several of the final matches.
Old Fort Damn, who had dispatched the mighty Pepsi Hikers by 6-5 in their semi-final clash, entered as favourites for the Men’s Open division against Saints HC, who had edged Bounty GCC in a penalty shootout. It only took Old Fort’s Ascofu Simon five minutes to score his first goal of a hat-trick with a John Abrams penalty and two field goals from Jason DeSantos and Jason Clarke taking Old Fort to a final score of six goals.
National midfielder Hilton Chester, who proved throughout the evening to be the most prolific penalty exponent, made a valiant effort to keep his side in contention with two penalty conversions. Despite the exploits of the diminutive Chester and a field goal by teammate Kwesi Lewis, Saints would fail to deny Old Fort the 6-3 victory and the Men’s open title.
The Women’s final got off to a promising start as the voluminous crowd were in an uproar just a minute into play when underdogs, the Woodpecker Hikers received a penalty against favourites Pizza Hut GCC. Goalkeeper Briawna Gordon managed to get the upper hand on the Hikers striker as was the case on many occasions during the match making her a strong candidate, along with younger sister Aliyah, for player of the tournament.
Pizza Hut GCC slowly tightened their grip as the match progressed and, with a hat-trick from national midfielder Trisha Woodroffe and a single from Sandy Roopnarine, placed the game beyond the reach of the Hikers with a 4-1 result. Hikers midfielder Latacia Chung scored the lone goal for the Hikers through a penalty rebound.
Below are the category champions.
Under-10 Mixed – GCC Hurricanes
Under-14 Girls – GCC Marian
Under-14 Boys – Saints Scorpians
Under-17 Girls – GCC Spartans
Under-17 Boys – Old Fort Cannons
Under-21 Girls – GCC Spartans
Under-21 Boys – Bounty GCC
Open Women – Pizza Hut GCC
Open Men – Old Fort Damn
Most goals:
Female: Abosaide Cadogan (GCC Spartans) – 21 goals
Sarah Klautky (GCC Spartans) – 21 goals
Male: Kareem McKenzie (Bounty GCC) – 15 goals
