Saturday February 23, 2013

Thunderbolt and UniKL move a step closer to the hockey semis

By S. RAMAGURU

KUALA LUMPUR: It was goals galore in the first leg quarter-finals of the MHC-Milo-NSC Junior Hockey League yesterday.

A total of 24 goals were scored, an average of six a match with champions SSTMI-Thunderbolt and Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) the star performers.

Thunderbolt thumped Division Two champions Kuala Lumpur Sports School 4-0 at the Taman Daya Hockey Stadium in Johor Baru. Azril Misron (13th minute), Ahmad Ashraf (33rd), Azwar Abdul Rahman (38th) and Mohamed Hafiz Selman (54th) were the scorers.

The easy win caught Thunderbolt coach Mohd Wan Roslan by surprise.

“It’s a comfortable lead to take into the second leg on Sunday. But we are not going to take it for granted. We will still field our best players,” said Wan Roslan.

At the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil, UniKL scored the biggest win of the day – a 7-0 win over Malacca High School.

It took UniKL only two minutes to break the deadlock through Mohamed Haziq Shamsul. But they had to wait until the 27th minute to get goal No. 2 – this time through Mohamed Syafiq Zulzairin.

UniKL continued to press forward after the breather and were rewarded with goals by Rafizzul Ezry (42nd), Norsyafiq Sumantri (50th), Mohamed Hafifi Elkan (62nd), Shafiq (64th) and Haziq (67th).

At the adjacent second pitch in Bukit Jalil, Tunku Mahkota Ismail Sports School (SSTMI) Juniors took a slight advantage over Division One runners-up Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) after a 4-3 win.

SSTMI took the fight to the PJ team and were in the lead after 17 minutes through a penalty corner effort by Mohamed Firdaus Musa.

The PJ side, however, equalised in the 30th minute when Mohamed Hafify Rodzi scored from a penalty corner set-piece.

SSTMI then came alive in the second half, scoring three goals in nine minutes.

Danial Asraf scored a brace in the 40th and 44th minutes while Luqman Nur Hakim contributed the other goal in the 49th minute.

But SSTMI failed to hold on to their three-goal advantage. They conceded an own goal in the 58th minute and MBPJ further reduced the deficit through Mohamed Shahiram’s penalty stroke conversion in the 65th minute.

At the Sultan Azlan Shah Stadium in Ipoh, MBI-Anderson took a big step towards their first semi-final appearance by hammering Division Two outfit MSS Kelantan 5-1.

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