56th Senior National Hockey Championship 2012:
Defence Services emerge champions
Yasarathna GAMAGE
Defence Services stickers defeated Matale Hockey Association team by
five goals to one after an aggressive second half play in the final to
clinch the 56th Senior National Hockey Championship for the 17th
successive year at the synthetic hockey grounds, Reid Avenue, Colombo
yesterday.
Although Matale team led the first half 1-0 with a field goal by C A
Welagedara. Defence Services played with a superb teamwork to bring the
game under their control in the second half and scored five goals with M
M Mulafer netting two consecutive goals in the 52nd and 62nd minute.
R A D P Ranasinghe opened up scoring for the champions with a penalty
corner in the 48 minute. Defence Services skipper and national captain I
K Jayasundara was quick enough to penetrate opponent’s defense to add
the second goal three minutes later.
Mullafer added his two goals within 10 minutes, making the task more
difficult for the opponents. It was skipper Jayasundara who scored his
second and final goal of the game in the last minute, making it an easy
5-1 win for the defence Services to march away with the champions
trophy.
Earlier on the day in the first semi-final, Defence Services beat
Mercantile HA by 3-0. Matale entered the final by trouncing Kegalle HA
11-1. Meanwhile Mercantile HA defeated Kegalle HA by 4 goals to 2 and
won the third place in the play off at the same venue. Kegalle led the
first half by 2-1 but Mercantile scored three more goals after the
lemons. H M M E Hendeniya and A S M Imran scored for Kegalle in the
first half. D Weerasooriya was the first to score for the winners before
the short whistle. S B Dissanayake came up with the equalizer in the
46th minute while M M D M Bandara and N A Hewage netted two goals to
seal the victory for for Mercantile HA.
Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgagmage was the chief guest at the
closing ceremony and gave away the trophies and certificates. |