Pepsi Hikers dominate male category

– Pizza Hut GCC snag ladies title.
THE Pepsi Hikers entertained the crowd on the final night of the GTT National Indoor Championships with a master class of hockey ending with an 8-1 defeat of Bounty GCC.
The Pizza Hut GCC did similar damage to the Woodpecker Hikers in the women’s final which ended 7-1 while the Old Fort Supersonics and Vintage carted off the veterans title.
The Pepsi Hikers seemed to know what their opponent was doing and scored several goals after stringing together a series of precise passes to mesmerise Bounty’s defence.
While GCC opted to use their individual skills to try to penetrate a rock solid Hikers defence, the Hikers speed in their counter-attack coupled with pin-point accuracy in their passes made them unstoppable on the evening.

National midfielders Jamarj Assanah and Aroydy Branford, both of whom would have benefited from a 6-month hockey stint in the UK earlier this year, showed their class with both players scoring hat-tricks. Seasoned campaigner Randy Hope managed a double to round out the 8 goals for the Hikers.
Bounty GCC managed to scramble one goal back in the dying moments of the match through Kevin Spencer but was never truly in contention as the Hikers cruised to their 8-1 victory.
The Pizza Hut GCC ladies were also in a class by themselves as they seemed hardly challenged by the Woodpecker Hikers. Traditional defender Vanessa Pires was given the reigns by her coach to play on the forward line and she delivered in fine fashion for the champs with a match-leading hat-trick.
After a Pires opening strike and one each from Gabriella Xavier and Sonia Jardine, the Hikers’ Latacia Chung saw her shot completely fooled goalkeeper Natalie Hing and rolled ever so gently into the GCC’s goal for a 3-1 score by the half. The Pizza Hut ladies stormed back with four unanswered goals in the second half, two from Pires, one from Xavier and one more from veteran striker Tricia Fiedtkou to pull off the 7-1 win.
The GCC Vintage found themselves against the ropes in their veterans clash against the Hikers but managed to pull off the win with two goals in the final ten minutes to separate the teams by one. The 5-4 victory for Vintage came through a deuce of goals each from MVP Dwayne Scott and Philip Fernandes while Patrick Edghill added a single. Devin Munroe and Timothy Jonas each scored a pair of goals to make up the Hikers’ four.
The most competitive match of the evening probably was the men’s second division final where the score line seesawed throughout the match with Old Fort’s Jael Gaskin deciding the match in the final minute with a powerful first-time shot into the GCC net for a 4-3 win.
On the individual end of things the most promising male player was Hilmar Chester (Saint Stanislaus College), while Spartan’s Makeda Harding took the female class.
In second division action,GCC Pitbulls’ Kareem McKenzie was the leading goal-scorer with David Williams (Old Fort Supersonics) being adjudged the best goalkeeper and Omar Hopkinson the Most Valuable Player.
In the veterans division Devin Munroe of Hikers scored the most goals while the Vintage duo of Rawl Davson and Dwayne Scott picked up the best goalkeeper and MVP awards respectively.
On the ladies end, Most goals scored award went to Kerensa Fernandes (Pizza Hut GCC), Best Goalkeeper was Briawna Gordon (Spartans) and the MVP was Dominique DeGroot (Spartans).
Aroydy Branford (Pepsi Hikers) scored the most goals in the men’s first division with Anthony Cole (Old Fort Ravens) being adjudged the best goalkeeper and Pepsi Hikers’ Robert France taking the MVP.