JFIS 2nd Div. hockey tournament …

Saints, Airbenders secure wins; All Grey, Hikers, GCC and Old Fort share points
IT was an action-filled weekend for the John Fernandes Second Division Hockey League which saw four high intensity games run off at
the Saints Ground on Carifesta Avenue, as each team struggled to find their place at the top of the competition. The afternoon began with the young Saints taking on the determined Old Fort team. The fans and teammates cheered on their teams as
Joel Hunte in the 11th minute opened the scoring for Saints.
Young Parmanand Dindial increased the lead as he joined his teammate in netting a second goal in the 22nd minute for Saints.
Saints continued on their rampage and netted four more goals through Kevin Edwards, Yonnick Peters, Parmanand Dindial and Hilton
Chester in the 30th, 32nd, 34th and 66th minutes respectively to seal what was a 6-0 drubbing by the Saints team.
The second match between the All Greys Veterans and leaders of the tournament, Hikers, saw the same perseverance and intensity from
both teams. The veteran side opened the scoring with a blistering shot from Damon Woodroffe in the 5th minute.
However, the Hikers answered with a goal by Hubert Forrester in the 17th minute to level the score.  A defensive error by Hikers gave
All Greys a penalty which was easily netted by Damon Woodroffe in the 18th minute to give the veterans the lead but the Hikers’ George
Melville replied in the 23rd minute when he found the uprights of the goal, levelling the score once more.
Going Ahead, Alan Fernandes in the 25th minute found the back of the nets for the Veterans.  However, Travon Younge in the 32th minute
equalised for the Hikers taking the score to 3-3 to end the first half.
In the 41st minute Alan Fernandes broke the deadlock for the veterans to send them into the lead once more. With only a few minutes
left to play, Ivor Thompson was red-carded and young Jamarj Assanah converted the resulting penalty stroke in the 57th minute for the
Hikers.Unfortunately the All Greys were down to only 8 men and were unable to continue the game. As such they forfeited the rest of the
match. This resulted in victory and full three points for Hikers.
The Airbenders withstood a second-half siege to clinch a 2-1 victory over Saints to gain their first points in the tournament.
The game began at a frantic pace, with both sides creating chances. The first decisive shot was taken by Kerensa Fernandes when she
wriggled away from the flat-footed Timothy McIntosh before hitting the ball past goalkeeper Lorenzo Bethune.  Another decisive shot
was taken before the horn for the first half by Avonda James who deflected Gabriella Xavier’s pass into the back of the net.
However, a late response by Saints saw Devin Hooper dancing skilfully through the Airbenders’ defence to pass the ball to teammate
Joel Hunte in the 70th minute who placed it beautifully in the goal to get the lone goal for the Saints.
The GCC Bourda boys took the field against Old Fort. Scrambling with time running out, Old Fort found a way to score in the dying
minutes of the second half to secure a 2-2 dramatic draw against the Bourda Boys.
Eric Hing for GCC took the opener in the 33rd minute by wonderfully netting a shot which deflected off goalkeeper Aderemi Simon into
the back of the goal. The Bourda Boys pushed themselves further into the lead when Hing netted in another for his team in the 41st minute. Terry Shaw
finally broke Old Fort’s scoring drought when he found the net in the 53rd minute.
With the intensity still high, Onassis Fraser made no mistake as he skilfully beat the Bourda Boys’ defence and netted to even the
score in the dying stages of the game. Following the weekend’s hockey action, Old Fort took on and defeated the second-ranked team in the tournament, All Greys, to advance in the John Fernandes Second Division League.
Both teams started to mount attacks early in the game as they were determined to secure victory. It was Old Fort, however, who finally
broke into the scoring book with a roaring goal by Troy Leitch in the 13th minute to take a 1-0 lead.
Nevertheless the All Greys were not going to give up easily and came back with an all-out attack.  After some strong back and forth
attacks, a careless tackle by Old Fort resulted in a penalty corner for the Veterans which was scored by Damon Woodroffe in the 18th
minute to tie the game. The All Greys fought to go ahead but some good defensive work by the Old Fort goalkeeper, Aderemi Simon, prevented goals from the
veterans. It was Onassis Fraser in the 29th minute who found the back of the net to take Old Fort to a 2-1 lead.
The pressure by the veterans bottled Old Fort in their half and it was Damon Woodroffe who tied the score at 2-2 on a penalty stroke
in the 32nd minute. Old Fort bounced back and applied tremendous pressure on the All Greys ‘defence and edged into a 3-2 lead by the crafty stick work of
Terry Shaw in the 39th minute which slipped easily pass the hapless veteran goalkeeper Ryan Whitehead.
Minutes later, the persistent veteran Alan Fernandes finally answered with a field goal which soared past goalkeeper Simon to tie the
game. However, another decisive shot by Old Fort’s Omar Hopkinson in the 46th minute took his team forward once more to 4-3.
Old Fort increased the lead when Troy Leitch in the 58th minute added another goal as he dribbled past the All Greys’ defence,
deceived the goalkeeper and found the net to make it 5-3.
The relentless striking force of All Greys’ Sheldon Corlette in the 60th minute pushed the veterans to 5-4 by banging in a rebound off
goalkeeper Aderemi Simon, to keep their team in the game. This was not enough to stop Old Fort from earning a hard-fought victory.
Action continues tomorrow when GCC take on the All Greys at the GCC ground from 16:45hrs.