The opening weekend of the Guyana Hockey Board’s (GHB) first-division league was nothing short of a goal scoring frenzy which saw the likes of Aroydy Branford and Meshach Sargeant recoding top-class performances when action got underway at the St Stanislaus Ground, Saturday and Sunday.
Most of the battles were one-sided affairs. Pepsi Hikers got things rolling on Saturday when they defeated Supernova 8-1.
Branford was in his usual destructive mode as he scored six of the eight goals while Andrew Stewart and Jamarj Assanah scored the other two goals.
Samuel Woodroffe had the lone strike for Supernova.
The second encounter on Saturday saw Sargeant netting five goals in Bounty GCCs 14-2 win over their senior counterparts, GCC Vintage.
He received support from Mark Sargeant and Kareem McKenzie, who each scored hat-tricks as Shaquille Leung, Kevin Spencer Peter de Groot scored solitary goals.
Eric Hing and Andrew Xavier scored for the losing team. The final game on Saturday was relatively quiet compared to the others where St Stanislaus completed a 2-0 win over Old Fort compliments of strikes from Shakeem Fausette and Hilton Chester.
Sunday, on the other hand, saw the females kicking into action. GBTI/GCC was the first ladies team on the winner’s board, defeating Bingo GCC Spartans 5-1.
Shebiki Baptiste and Carina Miller each scored twice for the winners while Marzana Fiedtkou netted the other and Madison Fernandes scored for the junior GCC side.
The 11:15 am a fixture between Hikers and GCC Vintage was hardly combative as Hikers secured their second win of the league.
It was 9-1 after the final whistle was blown with Devin Munroe peppering the back of the net on his way to scoring five goals.
Branford lent support with a hat trick while Brian Asregado scored the other goal as Philip Fernandes got the consolation strike for Vintage.
Bounty GCC also went two in two after a 9-1 win over Saints. The goals were evenly shared with Meshach Sargeant, Mark Sargeant, McKenzie all netted twice while Steven Xavier, Kevin Spencer and Leung netted once.
The final game on Sunday ended with Super Nova and Old Fort sharing the spoils 1-1. The league is sponsored by Farfan and Mendes (men) and Woodpecker Products (women).
