Naval Tata lads prevail over SGPC Hockey Academy

In an exciting encounter, Naval Tata Hockey Academy edged past SGPC Hockey Academy 4-3 at the Punjab Hockey League (U-21), which is being played at the Olympian Balbir Singh Senior International Hockey Stadium.

The Tata Academy lads started off well as a brace from Tintus Hemrom helped the side enjoy a 2-0 lead in the first half. However, Harwinder Singh reduced the margin in the final minutes of the second half. Ashish Tani Purti thereafter came with a brilliant performance and scored two goals in the third quarter to make it 4-1. In the final quarter, SGPC Academy troubled the Tata lads. Harwinder Singh and Diljeet Singh scored a goal each to bring down the margin. Tata lads managed to defend the one-goal lead when the final whistle was blown.

Meanwhile, Roundglass Hockey Academy thrashed SDAT Hockey Academy 10-3 in a commanding performance. It was the SDAT which took the lead in the third minute through S Vishal, but the hosts ended the first quarter in their favour. Gursewak Singh and Japnit Singh scored a goal each to give breakthrough to the hosts. Thereafter, Jobanpreet Singh, Sukhmanpreet Singh, Gurwinder Singh and Varinder Singh netted a goal each to make it 6-1. The SDAT reduced the deficit through goals from S Krishnan and M Sugumar, but Gurwinder Singh scored again for the Roundglass to take the game completely away from their opponents. The Roundglass added three more goals in the final quarter through Jobanpreet, Japnit and Prince Singh to script a dominant win.

In another high-scoring match, PIS Surjit Hockey Academy posted a 7-1 win over Ghumanhera Risers Hockey Academy. Abhishek Gorkhi scored a brace, while Charanjeet Singh, Manroop Singh, Karan Singh, Ajaypal Singh and Navdeer Kumar scored a goal each. Prikshit scored the consolation goal for Ghumanhera Risers.

In the final match, a brace by Ankur Ror and a goal each by Navraj Singh, Srijan Yadav, Mithilesh Yadav and Ravinder gave the SAI-Sonepat an easy 6-1 victory over Namdhari Hockey Academy. Gobind Patel scored the lone goal for Namdhari.

The Roundglass Hockey Academy and SAI-Sonepat continued their dominance on top-two positions, with 17 points and 15 points, respectively. With today’s win, Naval Tata Academy jumped to the third position with 10 points, followed by PIS Surjit Hockey Academy (9 points), Namdhari Hockey Academy (8 points), SGPC Hockey Academy (5 points), SDAT Hockey Academy (5 points) and Ghumanhera Risers Hockey Academy (3 points).