THE curtain closed on the second annual Smalta/iCool Water U-14 Indoor Hockey League last evening at Marian Academy with the host team and HHC Team Uzzi once again emerging victorious in the Girls’ and Boys’ competitions respectively.

The GCC Warriors gave the defending Girls’ champions an early scare in the semi-finals when striker Kirsten Gomes, who had been outstanding for the Warriors, scored in the 2nd minute of the game. It wasn’t until the 7th minute that tournament top-scorer Sarah Klautky was able to equalise.

Klautky doubled her tally in the 15th minute giving Marian a 2-1 lead to advance to the final.

In the other half of the draw, SHC Spontaneous edged out St Joseph Divas 2-1, with the Divas putting up a tough fight. The St Joseph team are relatively new to the game of hockey, debuting last year in this tournament but have vastly improved since.
Marian had a much easier time in the final against SHC Spontaneous, with Sarah Klautky scoring 3 times – guaranteeing herself the most goals prize – and Madison Fernandes scoring once to defeat Spontaneous 4-0.

HHC Team Uzzi dominated in their Boys’ semi-final, blowing away SHC Slayers 9-2. Baraka Garnett, top scorer for two years running, scored 5 goals while MVP Samuel Garnett scored 4 goals.
SHC Supreme closed the first half of their semi-final against SHC Scorpions 2-0 and responded to Robert Marcus’ lone goal to close the game 3-0 and move on to face the defending champs.

HHC Team Uzzi had much more difficulty in the final, failing to score on multiple occasions despite being awarded 2 penalties during the match. In the end, it was Baraka’s goal in the 5th minute that secured Uzzi’s victory for a second year.

The tournament also saw several outstanding individual performances in Most Promising Player (Selena Ajudia of GCC Warriors), Most Goals (Sarah Klautky of Marian Academy with 15) and MVP Charlia Webb of SHC Spontaneous).

For the Boys, the Most Promising Player was Vladimir Woodroffe of GCC War Dogs, Most Goals went – for a second year running – to Baraka Garnett of HHC Team Uzzi (11 goals) and the MVP went to Samuel Garnett of HHC Team Uzzi.