THE Solo Under-19 hockey league, featuring competitions for both boys and girls under the age of 19 years, got off to a good start over the weekend.

Several players were on display in the competition and the quality of play seemed much better than that of a year ago.

In the Boys’ competition, the Saints Sonics pulled off the largest margin of victory with an astounding 17-0 score against the newcomers North Ruimveldt Multilateral.  The GCC Pitbulls seemed destined to maintain the title with two wins while the Hikers cruised to a 3-0 victory over the Saints Splinters.

In last Saturday’s highly anticipated match between the GCC Pitbulls and Old Fort, outstanding junior nationals Kareem McKenzie and Meshach Sargeant for GCC faced off against ball wizard Omar Hopkinson of Old Fort.

While GCC appeared the more complete side with the edge on possession, Old Fort’s quick counter-attacking raids always seemed a dangerous threat.

With the first half coming to a close and no goals on the sheet, the diminutive Sargeant finally got the breakthrough for his side with a drive into the scoring circle and well-placed shot past the Old Fort goalkeeper.  Not surprisingly, McKenzie was the other name on the GCC score sheet just after the break with a powerful shot.

While Hopkinson and the rest of the Old Fort crew created several chances, the staunch defence, marshalled by Samuel Woodroffe, kept them scoreless and gave GCC a 2-0 win at full time.

GCC also defeated the Joseph’s Warriors the following afternoon by 2-0 with goals by Tariq Nelson and Seth Jeffrey.

The Hikers, featuring a litany of Garnett brothers and cousins took on the Saints Splinters in what turned out to be a tougher battle than anticipated.  Prolific goalscorer Baraka Garnett pulled off a hat-trick of goals in the last 5 minutes of play to decide the match which was dead even up to that point.  The Splinters fought bravely but ran out of steam in the end and conceded to the stronger side.

With NR Multilateral playing their first-ever competition, the Saints Sonics took full advantage of their home court familiarity to score maximum goals.  The experienced Troy Hodge led the scorers with six goals, Hilmar Chester added four, Edmond Chinian three, Shakeem Fausette two and Shemar Boston along with Malique Ferreira added one each.

In the Girls’ competition, the Bingo Spartans made light work of the GCC Her-icanes with a 12-0 victory.  Speedy striker Abosaide Cadogan was the top-scorer of the match with 5 goals while Alana Cheung scored a hat-trick, Makeda Harding added 2 and singles were scored by Madison Fernandes and Sarah Klautky.

The Saints Girls rounded off the weekend’s matches with a 4-1 victory over St Joseph. Talented athlete Charlia Webb scored the opener for Saints in the 10th minute and Cherub Autar scored the team’s second on the halftime buzzer.

Although St Joseph managed to pull one goal back just after the break through Jasmaine Assanah, Autar was in unstoppable form and hammered home two more to complete her hat-trick and a 4-1 final score for the Saints win.

Matches continue this Saturday and Sunday at the St Stanislaus College ground.