PANJIM: Odisha kicked off their campaign in style after registering a thumping victory against the team from Kerala with the scoreboard reading a massive 14 goals to none in favour of the East Indian side, in the 12th Hockey India sub-junior men’s National championship played at Hockey Astro Turf, at Peddem Sports Complex, Mapusa, on Wednesday.
The men in black cruised through their orange counterparts with ease and finesse with Sanjit Tirkey opening their account in the first quarter followed by 3 goals in the second quarter where they made it almost impossible for the Keralites to redeem themselves. The team from Odisha made the Kerala defence look like fish out of water with Irengbam Singh and Aryan Xess scoring respective hat-tricks.
Once the third quarter commenced, it was only a matter of how bad it could get for the Keralite defence which ended up being an absolute horror show thanks to the lads from Odisha only adding insult to injury with a total of 10 goals in the last 2 quarters.
Meanwhile, Hockey Bihar defeated Telangana Hockey 18-0. Bihar dominated the match, however couldn’t find a breakthrough until the second quarter where Bihar scored 5 goals whereas Telangana were struggling even to get possession of the ball. The Bihar side outplayed Telangana since, as the latter side seemed to have lost focus and couldn’t get through the Bihar defence.
In the third quarter, Bihar completely overpowered the Telangana defence and scored 6 more goals. Bihar skipper Aman Kumar scored a hat trick goal in the third quarter and two more goals coming from the Bihar players absolutely outplayed the Telangana players in the 3rd quarter. The 4th quarter also was in the favour of Bihar where they managed to repeat the score of the 3rd quarter giving them a total score of 18 goals.
In the other matches, Hockey Arunachal defeated Hockey Jammu and Kashmir 6-2 while Hockey Andhra Pradesh thrashed Hockey Mizoram 13-0.
Later in the day, chief guest, Puneet Goel, IAS, Chief Secretary, Govt. of Goa inaugurated the tournament, along with, Sports Secretary, Ajit Roy, President Goan’s Hockey, Xavier Marquis, Vice President Goan Hockey, Farell Furtado and Secretary, Benny Viegas.
Joaquim Carvalho, Merwyn Fernandes, Darryl Dsouza, Clarence Lobo, Selma D’Silva, Eliza Nelson Britto and Loretta Fernandes were among the 6 former Olympic players from Goa, who were felicitated on the occasion.
