Thanks to the wily efforts of John Abrahams, Old Fort ‘A’ defeated GCC ‘A’ by the golden goal in the final of the Noble House Seafoods handicap indoor hockey tournament which culminated at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) Friday night.
And, Everest Hikers taught the national under-21 squad playing under the name of Shatakans a fine lesson in indoor hockey when they inflicted a 14-9 victory over their younger opponents despite starting four goals down, to take third place.
But the final was truly a worthy tournament climax as both teams displayed a high level of hockey.
However, the custodians of both teams proved to be deserving of any accolade for their performance Friday night.
Were it not for the sterling efforts of both Tony Cole of Old Fort and Gregory Garraway of GCC, the match-up between thetwo teams would not have been as exciting.
Both custodians effected saves at times from point blank range that kept their team in the hunt for championship glory.
The game was a mere three minutes old when Cole was called upon to make two spectacular saves that brought “oohs” and “aahs” from the small, but vociferous crowd.
At the other end, Garraway showed that he too could be just as efficient when he pulled off a save from an Askofu Simon shot two minutes later.
Starting at a handicap five to their opponent’s four, Old Fort surged further into the lead thanks to the efforts of former national player and club coach Dexter Wyles who received a pass from Simon and found the back of the net in the 16th minute.
The score line read one nil (6-4 overall) in favour of Old Fort, who had to stave off the efforts of Patrick Edghill, Devin Hooper, Allan Fernandes and Orland Semple at lemon time.
Second half action was far more intense with GCC looking to draw level with their opponents, whose defence, led by Cole and Aderemi Simon, the older brother of Askofu, had to do lots of work to thwart the efforts of their opponents.
But as the saying goes “all good things must come to an end.”
Hooper, who was displaying great stick work during the game, found the back of the net after receiving a pass from Semple in the 30th minute.
But they still trailed by one goal on aggregate (5-6) and were hunting down their opponent’s goal area like tigers on the prowl, forcing Simon and Cole to work overtime to ensure Old Fort keep their lead.
Edghill, like Hooper, was displaying great stick work for his team which had lost their preliminary matchup to the same opponents and had the opportunity to send them into the lead, but was thwarted by Cole.
A tired looking Old Fort unit including Cole lost concentration with 10 seconds to go and Semple ensured that he made no mistake when he found the back of the net in the 40th minute to send the game into extra time.
It was a matter of the fittest being the survivor in overtime and even though they did not have much of a bench to call on as their opponents, Old Fort displayed that they were the fitter team throughout the first half of extra time with Abrahams, Wyles, Askofu and Aderemi Simon, Jason De Santos and Adrian Brandt carrying the fight to GCC.
But their opponents were equal to the task, with sturdy defence being shown by Semple, Hooper, Fernandes, Damon Woodruffe, Dwayne Scott and Garraway as they themselves looked to score the golden goal
.
But after five minutes of play and three in the second half, the golden stick moment belonged to Abrahams who received a pass from Wyles and found the back of the net to spark off celebrations on the field, while GCC left with their heads held high to a rapturous applause from their supporters.
In the third-place play-off, Everest Hikers showed their younger counterparts, who are preparing for the Pan American under-21 tournament to be held in Trinidad and Tobago from October 17-26, who were the bosses, by coming from a four-goal difference (2-6) at the start of the game to triumph 13-9 at the final whistle.
The credit must go mainly to the efforts of Alex Gouveia who scored four goals (6th, 19th, 21st and 35th), Robert France’s hat-trick (20th, 29th and 40th) and a double from Shane Samuels (7th and 37th).
Randy Hope (8th) and Devin Munroe (23rd) also found the back of the net for Everest Hikers whilst Zach Gonsalves (26th) and Shaka Gill (29th) responded for Shatakans.
Results from games played earlier showed GCC females, who started with a four-goal advantage, defeating Carib Degenerates who started with one goal, 9-7; Everest Hikers’ female team with a plus four going under to GCC Spartans 7-8 after a goalless second half in a second division encounter, which was also the first game of the night.
The second game of the night saw Everest Hikers’ ‘B’ defeating Dragons 6-2 after leading 3-1 at lemon time.
GCC Spartans with 14 points, won the second division title in the same competition from Old Fort ‘B’ who ended on 11 points, with Everest Hikers occupying the third position on 10 points. The presentation of prizes was done after the Old Fort ‘A’/GCC ‘A’ clash.