Army beat Police in armed forces battle

SHERDON PIERRE

MARCUS James scored a hat-trick for TT Defence Force (TTDF) as they started their title defence of the University of West Indies (UWI) Invitational Indoor Hockey Tournament with a 4-2 victory over Police.

Playing at UWI SPEC in St. Augustine, national player James opened the scoring for the Army team in the 14th minute. Four minutes later, his team-mate Shaquille Daniel doubled the lead. However, Police found some inspiration and responded two minutes later with a quick-fire brace from Wayne Legerton, to level the score-line at 2-2. James came to the rescue for his team, notching goals in the 26th and 30th to complete his hat-trick and secure the win for the regiment.

Defending women’s champions Paragon began their campaign in the best possible way, with a resounding 5-0 victory over Police. It was a total team effort from Paragon as five different goal scorers got on the scoresheet. Keima Gardiner scored the opener in the 4th to open the floodgate. Felicia King made it 2-0 in the sixth minute, and Monorka Lewis-Weekes’ goal (13th) put them in full control at half-time. Zene Henry (25th) and Kristin Thompson (28th) rounded off the scoring in the second half to give them victory by a handful of goals.

The leading goal scorers on the night were Aidan De Gannes (Queen’s Park) and Teresa Lezama (Notre Dame) with four goals each for their respective teams. After his impressive performance, De Gannes said, “We started off a bit slowly which is something we have been trying to work on. Eventually we got on track, stuck to our plan and got into our brand in which the UWI team couldn’t keep up.”

A new-look QPCC team is currently the most in-form male indoor team as they captured the Ventures Hockey Indoor Tournament last week at the same venue. On his beaver-trick of goals, De Gannes said, “Apart from the obvious good feeling of scoring, the better feeling for me was the cushion that the goals gave us which allowed us to relax and fall into our game.”

The group stage for both categories will be completed today with action flicking off from 8am.

Thursday scores:

Women –

UWI 1 (Gabrielle Thompson 14th) vs VENTURES (Lindsay Williams 9th; Amanda George 27th).

MAGNOLIAS MAGSTASTIC 3 (Elise Olton 12th & 14th; Lauryn Pounder 17th) vs NOTRE DAME 6 (Teresa Lezama 5th, 8th, 11th & 29th; Tonya James 16th; Kayla Brathwaite 24th).

MAGNOLIAS PINK 1 (Shaniah De Freitas 17th) vs VENTURES 2 (Jade Piper 14th; Amanda George 23rd)

PARAGON 5 (Keima Gardiner 4th; Felicia King 6th; Monorka Lewis-Weekes 13th; Zene Henry 25th; Kristin Thompson 28th) vs POLICE 0.

Men –

UWI 2 (Joshua Olton 10th; Lyndell Byer 16th) vs QPCC 7 (Aidan De Gannes 4th, 14th & 29th; Evan Farrell 19th & 28th; Robert France 21st; Jerazeno Bell 27th).

TTDF 4 (Marcus James 14th, 26th & 30; Shaquille Daniel 18th) vs POLICE 2 (Wayne Legerton 18th & 19th).

SUPERNOVA 4 (Warren Williams 3rd; Samuel Woodroffe 12th; Kareem Mckenzie 20th; Omar Hopkinson 24th) vs NOTRE DAME 0.

PARAGON 5 (Akim Toussaint 1st; Joel Daniel 6th & 19th; Terrence Baptiste 10th; Christian John 29th) vs FATIMA 2 (Che Modeste 3rd; Roshane Hamilton 15th).