THE first night of the 2019 Noble House Goals Galore Indoor Hockey Championships saw mixed results with several clubs tasting victory in the men’s and women’s divisions.

The big winners of the night, however, were the GBTI GCC Spice who started on zero and rained in 16 unanswered goals to dominate their opponents YMCA OFHC Bellatrix. The Bingo Spartans were the other female team to secure a win while GCC Vintage, SHC Splinters and YMCA OFHC Pacesetters were all victorious in the men’s division.

In the opening match on Monday night, the Bingo Spartans, beginning with a 5-goal handicap to the GBTI GCC Tigers 3, needed to defend tough, as their name suggested, and work the clock to hold off their senior opponents. It took the Tigers 13 minutes to finally break Spartans’ defence through a penalty stroke converted by national midfielder and former sportswoman-of-the-year Marzana Fiedtkou.

After a halftime which saw the scores at 5-4 for Spartans, striker Sandy Roopnarine capitalised on a first-minute defence error by Spartans to squeeze in a second goal for Tigers. With scores even at 5-5, young Spartans striker Abosaide Cadogan became the heroine of her team as she sent a penalty corner flick high into the roof of Tigers’ net in the 27th minute.

Cadogan used her speed to outpace Tigers’ defence and she finished her second just two minutes later.

With Tigers down two, pressure was set once again on Spartans and captain Makeda Harding who had been solid in defence. Fiedtkou pulled her team within one, through a penalty corner late in the second half but the Tigers ran out of time and conceded the 7-6 victory to Spartans.

With the relatively new YMCA OFHC Bellatrix enjoying a 9-goal handicap, GBTI GCC Spice launched a full attack from the opening whistle. In the end, 16 unanswered goals, scored by Spice, signalled that they are the team to beat in the female division. Ashley DeGroot led the scorer’s table with 5 goals while Macaela Harding scored 4, Gabriella Xavier finished with 3 and the Woodroffe sisters, Trisha and Dacia, each added two more.

In the men’s division, defending champions GCC Vintage cruised to a comfortable 15-13 win over youthful YMCA OFHC Champs. With the Champs starting the match with 12 goals to Vintage 5, Vintage striker Dwayne Scott took on the challenge and secured a hat-trick in the opening 10 minutes. Patrick Edghill added a fourth Vintage goal just before the half, to leave the scores at 12-9 to YMCA. In the second half it was more Vintage as Scott equalled his first-half tally with three more goals in the second half while John Phang, Alan Fernandes and Jason Gomes each added singles.

The goal that brought the most noise from the crowd, however, was the final of the match and first for YMCA, when Daniel Woolford finished off a counterattack to score two minutes from full time. This goal was not be enough as GCC Vintage carted off the victory, 15-13.

SHC Splinters held off an onslaught by Bounty GCC who almost made up the six-goal handicap deficit. With GCC beginning with 3 goals to Splinters’ 9, they scored four by halftime through brothers, Mark and Meshach Sargeant, and a double from Kevin Spencer.
Kwesi Lewis of the Splinters, however, scored a vital goal just before the half that would become the goal to separate the scores in the end. The Bounty boys mustered a pair of Kareem McKenzie goals in the second half after twice hitting the uprights but fell short by one, giving the SHC Splinters a 10-9 victory.

The final match of the night saw YMCA Old Fort Pacesetters hold off a strong challenge from SHC Slick Sticks by 12-11. After beginning the match with a 3-goal handicap deficit, Slick Sticks pulled themselves within one goal of drawing even with 10 minutes remaining. It was not until the penultimate minute however that the Pacesetters scored their lone goal of the evening through Steffon Simmons to go back up by two.

Shakeem Fausette scored in the final minute for Slick Sticks and gave their supporters some hope but the final buzzer went off too soon leaving Pacesetters to celebrate the 12-11 victory.
Games continue all week in the evenings from 17:00hrs and conclude on the weekend beginning at 14:00hrs on those days.