Hikers male team dominate, but females edged by GCC Spice on opening night

THE annual Noble House Goals Galore Indoor Hockey Championships got off to an exciting start on Tuesday at the National Gymnasium with reigning champions Pepsi Hikers posting the most emphatic performance of the evening with 19 unanswered goals.
The tournament, which follows the unique concept of teams being awarded goal handicaps at the beginning of the tournament, allows junior sides to compete against the more mature and experienced sides.
The top-ranked Pepsi Hikers entered their match against Old Fort Gosh with a 14-goal deficit due to the handicap given to the younger side.
Hikers dominated possession and made it a long night for Gosh, as they were subjected to chasing the ball around the floor and taking it out of the back of their own net.
The Hikers side had scored eight goals by the half to make it 14-8 in favour of Gosh, and would go on to net 11 more in the second half against a tiring young Gosh team to come out with the 19-14 victory.
National striker Aroydy Branford led all scorers with eight goals, Jamarj Assanah, Shane Samuels and Andrew Stewart each had hat-tricks while Devin Munroe and Robert France scored one each, all for the Hikers.
The most exciting women’s match of the evening saw GCC Spice (+2) try to hold off Woodpecker Hikers (+4).
This match seemed to be a foregone conclusion as Hikers scored three unanswered goals in the first seven minutes of play to make up the deficit and take the lead by 5-4.
A Nicole Eastman penalty corner in the third minute, a Kenisha Wills finish off a Maria Munroe pass from the right in the 5th and a Latacea Chung goal in the 7th seemed certain to assure the Hikers an easy victory.
Spice finally found the Achilles heel of the Hikers, however, in the 16th minute, as Tiffany Solomon managed to squeeze past Latacea Chung on the goal line with a low penalty corner flick to even the score at 5-5.
Spice managed to neutralise the potent Hikers attack of the first half and threw the game out of balance once again with a second penalty corner goal by Solomon 8 minutes into the second half. The final 12 minutes of the match failed to produce any goals, leaving the GCC Spice the victors by 6-5.
The youngest men’s side in the competition, Old Fort Warriors (+20), suffered an opening defeat to senior counterparts Old Fort Damn (+8) with the latter securing a 24-20 win.
With the Warriors starting the match with 20 goals in their favour due to the handicap, they were the only side to score with seven in the first half and nine in the second for the win.
SHC Old Dogs (+12) managed to overcome the HHC Recruits (+14) by 17 – 16 in the final men’s clash of the evening while the Old Fort Shooting Stars upstaged the youthful GCC Spartans by 14-13 in a ladies’ matchup.
The tournament continued last evening and games will also be played tomorrow and Saturday of this week with the final scheduled to begin at 18:40hrs on Saturday.