High-scoring games, the highlight on opening night

THE annual Noble House Goals Galore Indoor Hockey Championships got off to an exciting start Monday evening at the National Gymnasium, Mandela Avenue, with high-scoring games by both the senior and junior teams being the highlight.The Pepsi Hikers stamped their authority as favourites of the senior division with a 10-5 victory over Old Fort Vikings.
With Vikings beginning on a (+5) handicap lead, the Hikers captain Robert France signalled his team’s intentions with an early goal in just the second minute. Old Fort held off the onslaught for the next ten minutes and just as time seemed to be working against the Hikers, they made another breakthrough via young Michael Harding.
France drilled in two more in a dominant second half for the Pepsi Hikers while Aroydy Branford, Jamarj Assanah and Leon Bacchus each scored doubles.
GCC put in a stellar performance in their senior division clash against Saints that followed. Super sub, Trevon Smith, was first on the scoreboard for GCC en route to a hat-trick which was matched by teammate Orland Semple.
Mark Sargeant scored a double for the victors while Peter DeGroot and captain Devin Hooper extended the lead with one each.
Saints scrambled to find a rhythm throughout the match but managed a lone goal from Joel Hunte leaving the final score at 13-7 for GCC.
Blue Steel rounded off the winners of the senior division on opening night with a 19-9 trouncing of Old Fort Gladiators.
Eric Hing scored a hat-trick for Blue Steel along with Keon McKenzie and Michael Craig while Kareem McKenzie added a double.
The Gladiators’ lone goal came through a penalty stroke by Omar Hopkinson.
The junior division saw the first upset of the tournament, as Revelation upstaged female powerhouse GCC Tigers by 8-3.
Beginning with a (+8) handicap, Revelation’s defend-at-all-costs strategy paid dividends as the Tigers could only find their way into the net on three occasions.
A Trisha Woodroffe single and an Ashley DeGroot double were the only goals of the match leaving the Tigers shy of making up the large 8-goal deficit needed to catch Revelation.
The Old Fort Shooting Stars, the newest ladies side to enter local competition, drew some of the loudest cheers as they recorded their first competition victory in their short existence. The Stars managed to secure a 15-12 victory at the expense of Saints who gave up a monstrous 9-goal handicap at the opening whistle.
Saints would chalk up 8 goals through doubles from Meshach Williams, Myron Phillips, Kirk Persaud and Shemar Boston in their effort to reel in the Shooting Stars but a late penalty for the Stars, which was converted by Minsodia Culpepper, brought vociferous applause for the underdogs.
The final junior division game of the evening saw the Spartans brush aside the Hikers ladies by 7-4 after beginning with a 2-goal deficit. Captain Marzana Fiedtkou led from the front in scoring 5 of Spartans’ six goals, with the other coming through skilful Aliyah Gordon.
Hikers managed to score a lone goal midway the second half through speedy Latacea Chung by which time their grasp of the match had already slipped away.
The competition continues tonight at the same venue from 17:30hrs.