PIA march into National Junior Hockey final

LAHORE - Defending champions PIA marched into Saturday's final with an emphatic 5-0 win against Pak Steel on the penultimate day of the 28th National Junior Hockey Championship at the National Hockey Stadium here Thursday. They will take on National Bank of Pakistan in the final, which beat Army in a one-sided 4-0 second semi-final win here. Despite PIA's relentless onslaught Pak Steel defense stymied their forwards to keep first period scoreless and in the process PIA squandered away numerous goal scoring chances including a number of penalty corners. On resumption, Pak Steel's defenses caved in under PIA's fierce attack as Adeel Hassan blasted a hat-trick. PIA took the lead in the 42nd minute from Kashif Ali's penalty stroke conversion and a minute later Adeel Hassan stepped in to score his first goal. Taking advantage of Steel's disjointed defense Adeel netted his second goal in the 52nd minute and then two minutes later completed his hat-trick with a brilliantly executed combined move. Under tremendous pressure, Steel conceded fifth goal when PIA striker Shahbaz slotted nine minutes before the final hooter. PIA earned six penalty corners and a penalty stroke while Pak Steel had five penalty corners. Both the teams were presented to the President Punjab Hockey Association Khwaja Zarar Kaleem accompanied by PHA Secretary former Olympian Rana Mujahid Ali.In the second semi-final, NBP completed 4-0 rout of Army in a one-sided match. Rizwan Khan opened up the win stride for NBP in the 5TH minute while was doubled by Muhammad Ateeq in the 18th on a penalty corner. Yasir Shabir began the second half by adding the third goals for NBP in the 38TH minutes and later Rizwan scored his second and team's fourth goal in the 49TH minutes to ensure a solid win. Islahuddin Saddique was the chief guest of the second semi-final.   Results: Semi-finals: PIA beat Pakistan Steel by 5-0, Half Time 0-0, Kashif Ali 42nd Minute (ps), Adeel Hassan 43rd, 52nd, 54th Minute (hat-trick), Shahbaz 61st Minute, NBP beat Army by 4-0, half time 1-0, Muhammad Ateeq 18th minutes pc, Yasir shabir 38TH minutes, Rizwan Khan 5TH, 49TH minutes. Final will be played on August 30.

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