GCC teams dominate, Degenerates also victorious

May 17, 2009 Sports

---

GCC teams brought down the curtain on the Mr. Toppers Indoor Championships by dominating both the Men and Women segments of the Guyana Hockey Board-organised competition, which concluded last Friday evening, at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
In the feature clash, the Men’s team produced a master-class performance to pummel perennial powerhouse Hikers ‘A’ 6-2, which confirmed that their win over the opposition last Wednesday was no fluke, while the senior female team came from behind to score a 2-1 victory in sudden death overtime to win the Ladies final and Carib Degenerates defeated Hikers ‘B’ 6-1 to grab the Second Division title.
After their pool clash, fans were expecting a highly entertaining clash of skill and speed and the two teams never failed to disappoint.
Hikers were quickly into offensive mode and netted their first goal after two minutes through a well-placed penalty corner shot from ace striker Jerazeno ‘Skillaxe’ Bell.
With his usual grit and determination, seasoned campaigner and inspirational team leader Alan Fernandes responded with a shot from close range off a partial save from goalkeeper Azad DeAbreu just one minute later to wrest the momentum from the Hikers.
With exciting action at both ends throughout the first half, the match, however, tilted heavily in GCC’s favour as they proved the more productive side chalking up three more goals before lemon time, with the first coming in the 5th minute through a field goal from Kevin Spencer and two menacing penalty corner strikes from Dwayne Scott and Captain Devin Hooper in the 7th and 13th minutes.
The second period produced a fine display of some dazzling skills from Bell on the Hikers side and Orland Semple and Kevin Spencer of GCC, but GCC maintained their dominance of the match as Patrick Edghill found the end of a hard penetrating pass into the Hikers circle making the slightest of deflections to beat the advancing DeAbreu in goal. Spencer netted his second in the 34th minute to take GCC’s tally to 6 by slipping the ball into the empty Hikers goal after a series of GCC passes.
Hikers pulled one back 4 minutes from full time through a Shane Samuels deflection and while they were able to put together some threatening attacks in the closing minutes, fine goalkeeping from GCC’s Shad Fernandes and tremendous defensive play from left back Dwayne Scott kept their team out of danger to secure victory.
Earlier in the evening, GCC ‘B’, which was the only B team to be invited to play in the A division by virtue of their quality, justified their position with an upset 5-4 victory over Old Fort ‘A’.
In an evenly contested battle that went to the wire, GCC scored first through Shaka Gill in the fourth minute, but fell behind in the 11th as Jason DeSantos and John Abrahams found the net through a penalty corner and field goal respectively.
Despite taking a 2-1 lead into the half, Old Fort managed only two more goals in the second segment as both Abrahams and DeSantos produced an additional goal each in the 24th and 38th minutes.  GCC, however, managed to up their pace and rallied with four goals of their own to pull out victory.  Chris Xavier and his brother Andrew each scored one in the 24th and 37th minutes for GCC, while GHB president and coach/player Philip Fernandes netted a double.
The ladies final saw a clash of two GCC teams as the junior Spartans took on the experienced Tigers after a surprise upset victory over them in the pool round. Spartans again surprised the favourites with an early field goal in the 6th minute through promising junior striker Gabriella Xavier.
The Tigers were clearly the stronger offensive unit, the Fiedtkou sisters, Marzana and Talia, in defence along with Alysa Xavier in goal for the Spartans kept them off the score sheet for most of the match.
Spartans eventually conceded to the pressure in the 30th minute as Trisha Woodroffe blasted in a penalty corner shot past Xavier to draw the Tigers even.
It took two minutes of golden goal extra time to separate the two teams as the Tigers cracked the code again through prolific goal scorer and Captain Sonia Jardine.
The third place spot was shared between Hikers and Piranhas as their earlier clash produced an entertaining 3-3 draw.
Cora Towler, Avonda James and Amanda Garnette scored the three goals for the Hikers, all in the first half, while Piranhas squeezed the draw by evening the score with goals in the second half through Trisha Woodroffe, Dominique DeGroot and Marzana Fiedtkou.
Carib Degenerates toyed with the junior Hikers ‘B’ as the score remained deadlocked at 1-1 before the Degenerates piled on the pressure in the second half to round out the 6-1 victory. Young Hikers star Shaquille Assanah, was first on the scoreboard with a field goal in the 4th minute, but Rawl Davson levelled the scores before the half with one of his own in the 13th.
Sheldon Corlette poured in a double in the second half for Degenerates and James Mentore, Marcus Fiedtkou and Timothy Jonas completed the assault to secure victory.
Western Dragons secured third place in the Men’s B Division with a 5-2 victory over Old Fort ‘B’. Damian Fraser, Alex Paul, Donwes Austin, Andel Sampson and Leroy Carroll were the goal scorers for the Dragons, while Old Fort’s goals came via Kurt Thomas and Delon Williams.
The GHB thanked first-time sponsor Mr. Toppers Snack Foods during the closing ceremony for their support and who had their representative on-hand to present the trophies and medals to the winners.

---

---