Defence Force, Paragon cop men, women opening day hockey titles

Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force (TTDF) and Paragon hockey clubs battled to the opening day men and women’s titles respectively after pulling off penalty shootout wins at the National Hockey Centre in Tacarigua on March 23.

In the men’s division, TTDF defeated Malvern 1-0 from the penalty spot after both teams drew level 1-1 at the end of regulation time.

Defence Force went ahead in the first quarter when Isaiah Scott scored a field goal in the 12th minute. Just before the end of the quarter, Malvern’s Tyrese Benjamin pulled one back in the 15th minute, via a field goal, to go all square with three quarters to go.

With the tie forced to be decided from the penalty spot, both teams missed their opening two shots. Malvern’s Tariq Marcano surprisingly missed their third while TTDF’s Mickel Pierre made no mistake with his strike, to seal the win.

In their respective semi-finals, TTDF outplayed TT Police Service 4-0 while Malvern got past QPCC 2-0 courtesy penalty shots, after neither was able to find the back of the net in regulation time.

In the women’s final, Paragon emerged 3-1 victors from the penalty spot versus Magnolias after a 1-1 regulation time result.

Paragon went ahead in the first minute when national captain Robyn Dash scored a field goal. Two minutes later, Magnolias’ Naomi Holder pulled one back to make it 1-1 with just three minutes gone.

Neither could break the deadlock across the remaining quarters but it was Paragon who would emerge victorious from the penalty spot.

Their semi-final round matches saw Paragon beat a combined Malvern/Notre Dame team 4-3 from the spot, after drawing 1-1, while Magnolia slammed seven past Harvard Checkers in a landslide 7-0 triumph.