National forward Yesenia Luces scored on either side of the half as defending champion Ventures edged rival Shandy Carib Magnolias 3-2 to cement its semifinal spot in the T&T Hockey Board’s National Indoor Championship’s Women’s Open Division at the Woodbrook Youth Centre, Hamilton-Holder Street, Woodbrook, on Monday night. Luces opened the scoring as early as the second minute for a 1-0 lead at the half. Within two minutes of the restart, Ventures doubled its lead via former national captain Cristina Abreu. However, Michelle Leotaud pulled one back for Magnolias in the 23rd minute of the keenly-contested encounter. Luces and her Ventures team-mates then took advantage of the suspension of Magnolias captain Mika Ella Tang, by umpire N’Ku Davis to regain a two-goal cushion in the 26th minute.
With two minutes left in the match, Elise Olton also took advantage of the suspension of Abreu to bring Magnolias to within a goal, but that was as close as it got as Ventures held on for the win to push its points tally to ten from four matches prior to its top-of-the table clash with second placed Paragon last night. Paragon, second on the five-team table with maximum nine points from three matches, used goals from Thompson-sisters, Danielle, in the eighth and T&T internationl Kristin, seven minutes later to blank Harvard Maritime Checkers, 2-0. Despite the loss, Checkers stayed third with six points from four matches, but must beat fourth placed Notre Dame (four points from three matches) to be certain of a top four finish and a place in tomorrow’s semifinal. In the Men’s Open Division, Paragon and Corona Fatima both won to stay in contention for a semifinal spot.
Akim Toussaint, Cogie Butler and Kiel Murray scored two goals each for Paragon in its 6-3 triumph over Notre Dame to improve to six points from four matches, the same as defending champion Petrotrin which has a match in hand and six behind Queen’s Park which has one match left to complete its five-match round-robin campaign ahead of the tomorrow’s semifinals. Fatima used goals from four different players to whip Shape 4-1 to join Notre Dame on four points, however, the latter has played a match more. In the Mixed Veterans Division, guest player and recent Pan American Games Men’s 50m Air Pistol silver medal winner Roger Daniel registered a hat-trick for Notre Dame in a 6-3 beating of Malvern. The Dames now have ten points from four matches, three more than Queen’s Park and Carib. But while the Dames have a match to play and Queen’s Park, two, Carib has completed its five-match schedule.
National Indoor Hockey Championship Results
Monday
Women’s Open
Ventures 3 (Yesenia Luces 2nd, 26th, Cristina Abreu 17th) vs Magnolias 2 (Michelle Leotaud 23rd, Elise Olton 28th).
Paragon 2 (Danielle Thompson 8th, Kristin Thompson 15th) vs Checkers 0
Men’s Open
Paragon 6 (Akim Toussaint 2nd, 7th, Cogie Butler 4th, 19th, Kiel Murray 15th, 24th) vs Notre Dame 3 (Keith De Pezia 25th, 28th, Tobias Ottley 17th).
Fatima 4 (Jordan Vieira 7th, Derek Lee 16th, Ishmael Campbell 27th, Colin Young 30th) vs Shape 1 (Gerron Frank 27th)
Mixed Veterans
Notre Dame 6 (Roger Daniel 7th, 26th, 30th, Sean Olton 27th, Leon Ramdeen 15th, Selwyn King 18th) vs Malvern 3 (Charles Carter 5th, Leroy Sookdeo 10th, Sean Alexander 21st)
Schools hockey today at Woodbrook
Meanwhile, the annual National Secondary Schools Indoor Hockey (Under-20) Tournament takes place today at the Woodbrook Youth Centre, Hamilton-Holder, Woodbrook Facility from 8 am to 4 pm.
Source: www.guardian.co.tt