The smoke has begun to settle and clear front-runners are emerging in the 2019 Noble House Goals Galore Indoor Hockey Championships, which continued on Wednesday evening at the National Gymnasium, Mandela Avenue.
The Hikers Generals pulled off their third win of the Men’s competition to remain unbeaten and on top of Pool B with six points, while Vintage GCC and the Pepsi Hikers lead Pool A with similar records. On the Ladies side, the GBTI GCC Tigers rebounded from a loss in their opening match to lead the table with six points after their victory over YMCA OFHC Bellatrix.
The Hikers Generals took to the floor against the SHC Splinters in the Men’s Pool B with both teams on an even nine-goal handicap. The Splinters had disposed defending champs Bounty GCC on the opening night and would be a sound challenge for the Generals, who were also coming off of a victory over the YMCA OFHC Top Form.
The General controlled the game from the outset, scoring two goals in the first half from Devin Munroe and Sherwyn Caesar compared to just a single from Hilton Chester, captain of the Splinters.
Nkhruma Hutson drew the scores even with an early second half goal for the Splinters, but Munroe put the game beyond reach with two more goals for the Generals to complete his hat-trick, while Caesar added a second in the closing minutes. The 14-12 victory moves the Generals to the top of the Pool going into the fourth evening of the competition.
The highlight match of the evening was a high-paced and thrilling encounter between defending champs Bounty GCC and the talented YMCA OFHC Top Form. With Top Form enjoying a two-goal advantage from the start, GCC would draw the scores even in the first fifteen minutes through a double by Kareem Mckenzie.
GCC would then go one ahead one minute before the half when Shaquille Leung slammed home his teams third to leave scores at 6-5 to Bounty GCC. Omar Hopkinson drew the scores for the second time in the first minute of resumption with a penalty corner for Top Form and young prolific goal scorer Warren Williams added a second to move Top Form ahead by one.
The Bounty boys would draw even for the third time through Meshach Sargeant and then a fourth and final time as Hopkinson and Kevin Spencer scored a final goal each for Top Form and GCC respectively. After a close and hard-fought match, the teams had to settle for an 8-8 draw.
Two YMCA teams faced each other in the next Men’s fixture, which saw the YMCA OFHC Champs edge the YMCA OFHC Pacesetters 16-15. The victory was the first of the competition for the Champs. The Pepsi Hikers continued their form with a 13-10 beating of the SHC Slick Sticks.
With the Slick Sticks enjoying an eight-goal handicap, it took the Hikers to the last five minutes to secure the victory, but they made it a productive five minutes to take their total to 13. Aroydy Branford was once again the leading scorer of the match with seven goals.
In the Ladies competition, defending champs the GBTI GCC Tigers dominated newcomers YMCA OFHC Bellatrix with a 16-9 victory. With the Bellatrix beginning the match with a nine-goal handicap and the Tigers with three goals, the scores were even by the half.
The Tigers continued their onslaught with seven more unanswered goals in the second half of the match. Saints and YMCA OFHC Wolves was the other Ladies match-up of the evening and both sides began with an even five-goal handicap. Despite several near misses, neither team was able to score and the match finished on a 5-5 stalemate.
Results are as follows:
MALE Division
PEPSI Hikers defeats SHC Slick Sticks 13 – 10
Goals:
Hikers (0) – Aroydy Branford 7, Robert France 3, Randy Hope 2, Andrew Stewart 1
SHC Slick Sticks (8) – Shakeem Fausette – 1, Tivesard Garnett 1
YMCA OFHC Champs defeats YMCA OFHC Pacesetters 16 – 15
Goals:
YMCA OFHC Champs (12) – Shaquon Favourite 2, Nkosi Saul 1, Daniel Woolford 1
YMCA OFHC Pacesetters (11) – Steffon Simmons 3, Orin Singh 1
Bounty GCC drew with YMCA OFHC Top Form 8 – 8
Goals:
YMCA OFHC Top Form (5) – Omar Hopkinson 2, Warren Williams 1
Bounty GCC (3) – Kareem McKenzie 2, Shaquille Leung 1, Meshach Sargeant 1, Kevin Spencer 1
Hikers Generals defeated SHC Splinters 14 – 12
Goals:
Hikers Generals (9) – Devin Munroe 3, Sherwyn Caesar 2
SHC Splinters (9) – Hilton Chester 2, Nkhruma Hutson 1
FEMALE Division
GBTI GCC Tigers defeated YMCA OFHC Bellatrix 16 – 9
Goals:
GBTI GCC Tigers (3) – Marzana Fiedtkou 6, Tiffany Solomon 2, Princessa Wilkie 2, Shebiki Baptiste 2, Sandy Roopnarine 1
Saints drew with YMCA OFHC Wolves 5 – 5
Games continue all week in the evenings from 17:00h and conclude on the weekend beginning at 14:00h on those days.
