Hikers’ senior side took an unassailable lead with just a few more matches remaining in the Banks Night Hockey championships following a 3-0 win over Old Fort in the latest round of matches played Wednesday evening at Thirst Park.
Randy Hope, Jerry Bell and Timothy McIntosh netted a goal each for the winners to take Hikers in sight of championship honours.
The two teams seemed evenly matched in the opening minutes of the ‘A’ division showdown. The Hikers adopted their usual long passing game to their roving strikers while Old Fort used their speedy midfielders Aderemi Simon and Jason DeSantos to good effect in their counter-attacks. The Hikers made good on a goalmouth scramble in only the 5th minute however as Randy Hope passed the ball across the Old Fort goalmouth for the diving Robert France to tip in.
As the game progressed, the Hikers seemed the more composed of the line-ups and wrested control of the match and were rewarded just before the halftime buzzer when a well-placed Jerry Bell penalty corner strike found its mark.
Timothy McIntosh could have sealed the detail in the 48th minute but his powerful strike was deflected by an Old Fort defender over the head of goalkeeper Michel Smith giving the Hikers a convincing 3-0 win.
Old Fort had demolished the Hikers ladies earlier in the evening by 5-0 with goals by newcomers Jamal Robinson, Shamar Pemberton, Clarence Edwards and veterans Robert Hussein and Michael Jack.
The Hikers ladies did well to hold the score to 1-0 at the half but succumbed to the consistent Old Fort pressure in the second half.
The other ladies side, Flora GCC battled the Western Dragons before going down 1-0 to the West Demerara side.
The game’s lone goal was scored by the goal-hungry Deon Carew two minutes before the final whistle.
In the other match of the evening, the GCC ‘B’ had little difficulty in disposing of the Carib Degenerates and took advantage of their superior fitness to chalk up a 2-0 victory with goals by Orin Mayers and Shad Fernandes in the 34th and 43rd minute respectively.
In the First Division standings, Hikers have secured their place in the men’s ‘A’ division final with 9 points while GCC sits in second with 6 and Old Fort remains without points. GCC leads the B division pool with 13 points followed by the Western Dragons and Everest B both with 9 points. The Flora GCC ladies have 7, Old Fort 4, the Carib Degenerates 1 and the Hikers ladies 0.
Play continues this evening at Thirst Park with the Hikers ladies challenging the Carib Degenerates, the Hikers ‘B’ versus the Western Dragons and GCC ‘B’ versus Old Fort ‘B’ all in the B division.
The lone ‘A’ division match will see a dress rehearsal of the men’s final in the clash between GCC ‘A’ and Hikers ‘A’. Matches begin at 18:30hrs.
