Noble House Goals Galore Indoor Hockey C/Ships…GCC Vintage, Pizza Hut GCC Ladies ensure GCC win the ‘double’

Jul 17, 2017 Sports, http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....-gcc-win-the-double/

It was action galore as the curtains came down on the Noble House Goals Galore Indoor Hockey Championships on Saturday night at the National Gymnasium with a couple of pulsating finals which climaxed a well run and entertaining tournament with GCC teams giving their club the ‘double’ with victories in both the male and Female categories.

Watched by good size and vocal crowd, which included former National Rugby Captain Ryan Gonsalves, the sensational men’s final could have gone either way with less than a minute to go but GCC Vintage showed they were like good wine and eventually scraped home with an upset 10-8 win to hand Bounty GCC their first defeat in the tournament in very hot conditions.
Pizza Hut GCC ladies defeated Saints 16-12 to capture the female trophy to give GCC, Guyana oldest and most famous club, both titles and plenty of bragging rights.
GCC Vintage began with a +6 goal handicap, one more than Bounty’s +5, and scored the first goal in the second minute of the enthralling encounter when Devin Hooper collected an accurate pass from Patrick Edghill from the right and finished the job by beating custodian Micheal Hing in clinical fashion.
Bounty midfielder Mark Sargeant scored four minutes later when Hooper stopped a penalty corner bullet on the line but Sargeant flipped the rebound into the net.
Vintage would reel off three unanswered goals with one more from Hooper which was set up by a skilful overlapping run by right back Rawl Davson and two goals from Edghill. Bounty GCC made a late surge with two penalty corner goals from tournament highest goals-scorer Kevin Spencer but they were too little too late and fell two goals short trying desperately to beat the clock.
Earlier, Vintage had prevailed by one goal in an exhausting semi-final match-up against the OFHC Warriors.
Saints, considered the underdogs, surprised many of the more experienced sides to book their place in the grand finale after a hard-fought semi-final battle against the Woodpecker Hikers which Saints secured a 13-9 victory.
With GCC starting on zero and Saints enjoying a +12 goal handicap, the Pizza Hut ladies, who won all of their matches comfortably, had their work cut out in the keenly contested final, especially with the goalkeeping heroics of tournament best goalkeeper Donyale Nurse who managed to deny a multitude of attempts throughout the tournament.

It took GCC five minutes to breach Nurse but no time after that to get their second. The Pizza Hut ladies piled on the pressure and amassed eight goals by the half but Saints were matching them ‘shot for shot’ and at the end of the first stanza GCC knew they were in for a brawl with score 8-12 in favour of Saints.
The second half produced a dominant display from Pizza Hut GCC as their crisp passing and unique skills bewildered an inexperienced Saints defence. GCC scored eight more goals in the second half, while not conceding a single goal.
Pizza Hut GCC cantered to an emphatic victory as their five leading goal-scorers of the tournament each stamped their mark on the final. Marzana Fiedtkou and Gabriella Xavier netted four each, tournament top-scorer Sonia Jardine and Aliyah Gordon scored hatricks, while Kerensa Fernandes added a double.
At the Presentation the Male and Female Champions received Trophies and Medals as did the runners-up, while Donyale Nurse of Saints (best female goalkeeper), Sonia Jardine of Pizza Hut GCC (most goals 14) and Kevin Spencer of Bounty GCC (most goals 12) were also rewarded. (Sean Devers)

GCC Vintage were the Male Champs on Saturday night at the Nat Gymnasium. (Sean Devers photo)