ISLAMABAD-Thanks to sensational five-goal hero Umer, Punjab Whites butchered Balochistan Whites 14-0 in the 1st National U-18 Hockey Championship third match played here at Naseer Bunda International Hockey Stadium on Monday.

Things could have been further worst for Balochistan, had Punjab not missed too many goal-scoring opportunities. Ahsan Raza opened the scoring for the winners in the second minute of the first quarter through a field goal. Punjab doubled their lead in the 5th minute, when M Fawad scored a wonderful field goal. They had to wait for another two minutes before Zulqarnain scoring third goal in the 7th minute while skipper Waqas Ali scored a brace in the 9th minute and 10th minutes. Muriz Hussain completed double hat-trick of Punjab in the 11th minute to make it 6-0 at the end of the first quarter.

Balochistan were much organised in the second quarter, as they managed to restrict Punjab till 20th minute before the winners finally prevailed and hammered their 7th goal through Zulqarnain while they scored the 8th goal in the 21st minute through skipper Waqas, who also completed his hat-trick. Balochistan suffered huge injury as Ishtiaq was hit on his right hand wrist and was rushed to the hospital, where it was announced his wrist was badly damaged and he could no longer participate in the championship.

Punjab Whites coach made the replacement of the match, as he introduced forward and hero of the match Umer in the 22nd minute, who required two minutes before putting his name on the score sheet. He scored arguably the best goal of the championship so far in the 24th minute to enhance his team’s lead to 9-0. Umer scored his second in the 25th minute to finish the second quarter at 10-0.

In the third quarter, Balochistan played out of their skins and restricted Punjab from scoring more goals till the 47th minute, thanks to their goalies, who played superbly. Finally, the deadlock was broken by Rao M Ali, who scored 11th goal of the team in the 47th minute while Umar completed his hat-trick in the 48th minute while he hammered 13th goal in the 54th minute and the score line was completed in the 58th minute, when Umar scored his fifth and Punjab’s 14th goal to end a highly miserable day for Balochistan.

The Balochistan manager was full of complains and showed his utmost displeasure over Punjab players. Director tournament Col Ahmed Nawaz assured the Balochistan manager that his genuine grievances would be addressed, while he personally asked the players to come in the morning for wrist tests at PSB medical centre. Balochistan manager looked satisfied and agreed to bring players for wrist tests.

Meanwhile, 17 more players from different teams were barred from playing after age scrutiny conducted by Dr Shabeena Aftab, while five players were allowed to play for their respective teams after they were cleared by Dr Shabeena.

In the second and last match of the day, Punjab Greens came from behind to beat determined Sindh Greens team 2-1. Sindh took the lead and stunned the mighty Punjab team in the 3rd minute of the first quarter, when Akbar Ali scored a solo goal. Punjab bounced back through Mohsin Hassan in the 9th minute and took the well-deserving 2-1 lead in the 11th minute of the first quarter through M Yasir. Despite putting tremendous pressure, Sindh failed to equalise till the end. In the next 45 minutes, none of the teams could further score a goal and the match ended at 2-1 in favour of Punjab Greens.