Hikers ‘A’ squeezed past Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) 1-0 to maintain their unbeaten run in the Banks DIH Night Hockey tournament at Thirst Park Wednesday evening.
However, GCC ladies and men’s second division teams turned the tables on their Hikers counterparts in a night of pulsating hockey under floodlights.
Also Western Dragons of West Demerara pulled off a 3-2 win over the Carib Degenerates in the other clash of the evening.
One could cut the tension with a knife as the Hikers ‘A’ and GCC ‘A’ teams squared off in the feature clash of the evening in the men’s first division competition.
The Hikers being down by two matches owing to their ladies and junior men losing to GCC, were desperate not to succumb to a whitewash as a determined GCC ‘A’ team faced them from across the pitch.
The match was hard-fought from the opening whistle as the players were determined not to give an inch of advantage to the opposition.
Devin Hooper of GCC made several runs at the Hikers goal which were smothered by excellent defence and the superb goalkeeping of Azad De Abreu, while the Hikers kept the game even with their pinpoint long passes to the ever-present Robert France lurking by the GCC nets.
The match remained scoreless until the 18th minute when striker Alex Gouveia made a break down the right side and squeezed the trigger to blast a bullet of a shot past GCC custodian Michael Xavier.
The second half saw GCC pressing for the equaliser but the Hikers were up to the challenge every time to pull off the 1-0 victory and surge to top of the men’s ‘A’ division pool.
Earlier in the evening the Flora GCC ladies proved too much for their Hikers counterparts and cruised to a 2-0 victory with one goal in each half from Captain Sonia Jardine and striker Brennette Gordon respectively.
The GCC ‘B’ men and the Hikers ‘B’ match was a closer affair but the watertight central defence of the Gonsalves brothers, Stuart and Sean, proved impenetrable and GCC would chalk up its second win of the night with two first half penalty corner goals by strikers Patrick Edgehill and Shaka Gill.
Western Dragons added to their point tally by picking up the full three points against the Carib Degenerates with a 3-2win although the veteran side made the match as difficult as possible by drawing even twice during the battle.
Deon Carew scored a hat-trick in the encounter.
He opened the Dragons account in just the 4th minute through a swift counter-attack but Brian Asregado would drill a powerful penalty corner strike home for the Degenerates 12 minutes later to even the score.
Carew would give the West Demerara side a lead again in the 24th minute but Sheldon Corlette replied just one minute after to send the teams into the half with a dead even score of 2-2.
The second half would see many chances go awry until Carew nailed the finisher to complete his hatrick in the 37th minute claiming the victory for the Dragons.
The Hikers sit on top of the men’s first division pool with 6 points followed by GCC on 3 and Old Fort with 0.
GCC secured the lead in the second division pool with 7 points, followed by the Western Dragons and Hikers ‘B’ both on 6, the Flora GCC ladies on 4, Old Fort ‘B’ and Carib Degenerates each amassing 2 while the Hikers ladies are yet to earn points.
Matches continue at Thirst Park on Monday with the opening clash between the Flora GCC Ladies and Old Fort ‘B’ followed by Hikers ‘B’ and Degenerates then pool leaders GCC ‘B’ and Western Dragons.
The feature first division matchup will follow between GCC and Old Fort in the first second round clash of the competition.
The action will get cracking at 18:30 hours.
