THE Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) ground witnessed yet another entertaining battle between hockey giants, hosts Bounty GCC and the Pepsi Hikers, as the two teams squared off in the first round of the Farfan & Mendes Hockey League last Friday afternoon.
While both teams struggled to conform to the timing of the bounce on the Bourda outfield, GCC enjoyed the greater possession and pressed the game high into the Hikers defensive areas with several attacking forays that threatened the Hikers goal.
Five minutes into the match, GCC midfielder and junior national Kareem McKenzie carved a path through the middle before laying his pass to Philip Fernandes on his right. Fernandes replied with a delicate return pass into the path of McKenzie for the shot and first goal of the match.
GCC seemed to tighten their grip on the game even further and were rewarded with several penalty corner opportunities but the Hikers met the challenge on each occasion to deny the Bourda side their second goal. The first half would come to an end with GCC enjoying a one-nil lead.
Six minutes into the second half, national midfielder Jamarj Assanah pounced on an errant defensive pass by GCC, to evade the defensive challenge of the GCC fullback and goalkeeper to slam home an equalising goal. The goal gave the Hikers a much-needed boost of confident while rattling the composure of the stunned GCC players.
With the game now hanging in the balance and challenges being made at both ends, a long pass out of the Hikers defence met roving striker Robert France high on the right wing.
France’s clean reception and turn of pace caught the GCC defence out of position and his pass across the goal was met only by advancing GCC goalkeeper Medroy Scotland.
While Scotland tried to clear the ball to safety, the rebound was trapped by Hikers midfielder Travon Young who sent his shot into the open net with just three minutes of playing time remaining.
The Hikers held on for the remainder of play to come away with the 2-1 victory.
In the second Farfan & Mendes men’s first division match of the weekend, Old Fort faced Saints Hockey Club with both sides looking for their first win of the competition. In just the opening two minutes of play, a careless tackle by Saints in their goalmouth area, handed Old Fort a penalty stroke and an easy opportunity to take the lead. Old Fort midfielder Aderemi Simon easily scored to give his team a one-nil lead.
Simon showed the class for which he is well known by scoring twice more in the match while teammate Chris Low scored a single to complete Old Fort’s four-goal match tally. Saints HC held firm in the early minutes despite the penalty goal and even managed to draw even briefly, through a counterattack by Ato Green in the 19th minute.
Despite the usual solid performance by Saints player/coach Robert Fernandes, Old Fort proved too much for Saints and ended the match with a 4-1 victory.