LAHORE - Wapda, Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), Army, Railways, NBP, KP Whites, Customs and Punjab Whites have squeezed into the quarterfinals of the ongoing 35th National Junior Hockey Championship here at the National Hockey Stadium.
Four matches were played on Monday as Wapda thrashed KP Colours 11-0, Army defeated SSGC 1-0 in a hotly-contested match, Customs hardly defeated Punjab Colours 1-0 and NBP routed Police 7-0.
Hat-tricks by M Mateen and Ilyas Ahmed steered Wapda to a convincing victory in the opening match of the day. Mateen struck three field goals in the 2nd, 20th and 21st minutes respectively. Ilyas also netted field goals in the 22nd, 25th and 28th to complete his hat-trick. Shahbaz Ahmed added two field goals in the 26thand 59th minutes. Bilal Mehmood converted two penalty corners in the 46th and 49th minutes. Junaid Manzoor netted a field goal in the 31st minute. KPK (c) got two penalty corners but failed to convert. Abdul Mannan and Yasir Khursheed supervised the match.
Match between ARMY and SSGC was hotly contested. Both teams fought hard to take control of the ball which kept on rolling between two halves. Both teams wasted one penalty corner each in the first quart. SSGC again wasted a penalty corner in the 43rd minute Zeeshan’s cross from the line into the Circle was neatly deflected by Waseem to ARMY lead. The tussle to get possession of the ball intensified in the fourth quart. SSGC exerted pressure amid a series of attacks which forced their opponents to be on the defensive. Rana Sohail failed to deflect a cross from Iftikhar in the 56th minute. Ameer Hamza and Mehmood Ali were field umpires.
Customs and Punjab (c) also fought hard in their last pool match. After playing a quiet first quart both teams demonstrated aggressive stick work in the second quart. Customs’ Captain Ahad along with Asif and Zain made a very fine move and earned a penalty corner in the 22nd minute. Zeeshan struck hard to score the only goal of the match. Punjabians launched few counter attacks after conceding a goal but Customs’ defenders tackled them skillfully. Punjab also spoiled a penalty corner in the 54th minute which deprived them to level the score. Sohail Janjua and Anwar Chaudhary were the field umpires.
Policemen were far behind in speed, stamina and skill which was reflected from their performance in the last match of the pool against NBP. Whereas the bankers were agile as usual and their forwards moved in the middle at will and enjoyed a good practice session before their important quarterfinal against Customs on Tuesday (tomorrow).
The Bankers struck three goals in the first quart. Their team Captain Mohammed Atiq struck the first blow in the 1st minute through his field goal. Mohammed Dilbar’s field goal came in the 5th minute and Bilal Qadir scored his field goal in the 8yh minute. Shan Irshad netted a field goal in the 25thminute to take the tally to four. Then Ameer Ali hammered  two field goals in the 53rd and 58th minutes. Finally Faizan struck the seventh goal for his team in the 60th minute. Faisal Ismail and Ghulam Moheyuddin supervised the match.
Today (Tuesday) in the quarterfinals, NBP will take on Customs, Wapda will vie against SSGC, KP Whites will play against Punjab Whites and Army will face Railways.