THE GCC ladies hockey team suffered mixed fortunes on day three of the Trinidad and Tobago Hockey League when their five-match competition schedule continued at the Eastern Regional Sports Centre in Trinidad on Sunday.After winning their first game on Friday and losing their next two games on Saturday, the local lasses defeated Notre Dame Club which featured Trinidad and Tobago’s star striker Blair Wynne 3-2.
However, in their second game on Sunday, the local ladies went down to the powerful Checkers Hockey Club by a slim 0-1 margin.
According to team coach and Guyana Hockey Board president Philip Fernandes, in their opening encounter on Sunday, GCC appeared the more complete of the two sides and a solo run by the swift Wynne produced a penalty corner for Notre Dame in the 3rd minute of play.
Wynne stepped up for the penalty corner strike and though her initial shot was blocked by goalkeeper Briawna Gordon, who was having an outstanding tournament, Wynne was first onto the rebound and smashed it into the GCC net to give her side a one-goal lead.
GCC equalised two minutes later, however, when team captain Sonia Jardine found striker Shebiki Baptiste with an accurate pass before Baptiste received, turned and hammer home her shot.
The roles were reversed in the final minute of the first quarter as a GCC counterattack finished with Baptiste drawing the Notre Dame goalkeeper and sliding her pass to Jardine in support to finish into the open net.
Despite GCC’s dominance of the possession, Wynne proved a menace for the Guyanese side and evened the score at 2-2 by scoring her second rebound shot in the 17th minute.
Midway the second half of the match, Kerensa Fernandes sealed the 3-2 victory for GCC with a penalty corner strike on the near post.
Their second match of the day and final for their trip was against Checkers featuring several national players for the Twin-island Republic. It was expected to be the toughest game on the schedule for the Guyanese.
The GCC ladies, however, rose to the challenge and kept the game close all the way through. With GCC squandering a handful of goal-scoring chances in the first half, Trinidad national midfielder Cristina Abreu completed a well-executed penalty corner routine to give her side a 1-0 lead with eight minutes remaining on the clock.
Both teams continued to share possession of the ball right down to the final whistle and GCC ran out of time to find the equaliser.
The team returned home on Sunday evening and will have two weeks to prepare for their return trip on May 16.