Twenty-four goals were scored in the match between pre-tournament favourites Everest Hikers “A” and Police in which Hikers crushed their opponents 21-3 in what local hockey pundits believe is a national indoor record for the highest goals in a match on Saturday the penultimate night of the GT&T sponsored National Indoor Hockey championships at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
Hikers “A” and Old Fort “A” played unbeaten in their respective groups and marched into the semi-finals, and at least one of the teams was likely to reach last evening’s final, while Hikers and GCC Tigers were also on course to meet in the women’s final.
Hikers ‘A’ men sent warning signals to all opposition by soundly thrashing Police.
One hockey official remarked that the result sounded more like a volleyball match as Hikers continued their domination of Indoor hockey following their 11-2 win Trinidad and Tobago side Malvern in the Diamond Mineral Water Indoor Hockey final last December.
Shane Samuels led the Hikers charge with a staggering ten-goal haul joined by hattricks from Alex Gouveia and Quillon Williams, doubles by Jerry Bell and Robert France and a lone strike from veteran Marc King.
Dwight McCalman netted a double and Michael Bourne one for the losing Police side.
Defending champions GCC ‘A’ suffered their first defeat despite still securing a men’s semi-final spot while the final pool match yesterday would have determined whether surprise of the tournament, Western Dragons, could have wrestled the last remaining semi-final spot from Old Fort ‘B’ and GCC ‘B’.
The Carib Degenerates managed to secure their first points of the tournament and salvage some pride by defeating the lowly Everest Hikers ‘B’ 8 – 6 in a hard-fought battle to avoid the pool’s wooden spoon.
Timothy Jonas with a hattrick and Sheldon Corlette, a double, led the scorers for the Degenerates while Keith Gordon, Triston Gomes and Gregory Sills added one each.
Renick Evelyn managed a double for the Hikers with Jason Clarke, Yannick Peters, Kevin Fogenay and Anton Duke adding one each in their team’s losing effort.
The Everest Hikers ‘A’ returned later in the evening to polish off Western Dragons 11 – 5 in their final pool match.
Shane Samuels was on fire once again for the Hikers scoring a helmet trick (4 goals) while Robert France scored a double and Jerry Bell, a single goal.
The Dragons goals were scored by Deon Brandford with a double, Horale Cains and Andel Sampson. Dragons would, however, make up for this defeat with a victory over the promising GCC ‘B’ in a high energy match-up later in the evening 6 – 5 .
Eugene Smith led all scorers with a hattrick, Deon Carew while scored a double and Jermaine Murray the other goal.
The GCC ‘B’ managed their five goals through Shad Fernandes, Andrew Xavier, Captain Chris Xavier, Stuart Gonsalves and Shaka Gill.
GCC ‘B’ would still secure a victory on the night for themselves in a subsequent clash against Police who forfeited their match after trailing 1-0 at the half.
Favourites in the ladies competition Hikers and GCC Tigers clashed for the first time in the tournament in what was set for a prelude to the final.
The ladies did not disappoint their vocal supporters as they battled to a 3-3 stalemate with the final equalising goal by the Tigers coming on the final buzzer.
The Tigers scored first through Tricia Fiedtkou in the 4th minute but the Hiker’s Amanda Garnett equalised in the seventh minute before Tiffany Solomon converted a penalty flick to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead at half time.
Hikers equalised with nine minutes remaining through a penalty corner by Avonda James and they pushed further ahead when Garnett scored her second goal of the match.
Hikers led 3-2 with seconds on the clock before slack defensive work caused them a penalty corner in which GCC captain Sonia Jardine scored at the buzzer to tie the match 3-3.
GCC ‘A’ went down to Old Fort ‘A’ 4-3. Despite some strong possession play and build-ups by GCC, goalkeeper Tony Cole and the more youthful Old Fort side kept them at bay and open the goal tally in the 5th minute through Dwight Sullivan.
GCC responded through a Kevin Spencer field goal in the 19th minute but the talented Aderemi Simon en-route to his hat-trick answered immediately upon resumption.
The second half would witness end-to-end action as John Abrams field goal and Simon’s penalty stroke conversion took Old Fort further ahead before GCC drew within one again with goals by Devin Hooper and Orland Semple.
A critical defence error would secure the match for Old Fort as Simon made no mistake to complete his hat-trick in the 34th minute and secure the victory for Old Fort.
