Inspired by Vikram Singh’s eight-goals defending champions Ave Maria began the defence of their title in resounding fashion as they got the better of New Mahima SC ‘A’ by a 10-5 margin in a first round match of the Mount Carmel Open Invitation Floodlit Rink Hockey Tournament – 2019, organised by the Carmel Sports Committee at the Mount Carmel Church compound on Monday night.
Besides Vikram’s brilliant efforts in scoring eight goals, Ave Maria got the other two goals through Nitin Kumar.
Meanwhile, in the most exciting and well-contested first round match of the night, Central Railway and United Bandra were engaged in a grim battle for supremacy before the former managed to edge through chugging to a narrow 8-6 win to secure their place in the second round.
Anup Walmiki lead the way scoring scoring four goals in Central Railways win while Nilesh Mane, Nirmal S., Narad Bahadur and Roshan Keishem scored one each, while a fighting United Bandra scored through Daniel D’Souza, Royston Lobo, Hritik Gupta, Akshay Jadhav, Imran Z. and Imran Khan.
Results – Men’s Open (first round): Mumbai Custom 8 (Jayesh Jadhav 3, Alden D’Souza 3, Moses Pullantara, Lokesh Rana) beat Jablonsky SC 2 (Deepesh D., Sohan M.).
Bombay Republicans SC 11 (Darshan Gavkar 4, Tejas Chavan 2, Kushal Meghwal 2, Conroy Remedios, Tikaram Thakulla, Laxmikant Kavle) beat Mansi Foundation 2 (Arjun Gupta 2).
Ave Maria 10 (Vikram Singh 8, Nitin Kumar 2) beat New Mahima ‘A’ 5 (Joseph P. 3, Michael E. 2).
Sea View SC 4 (Kunal, Anish 2, Shelton F. 2) beat Indiia Rush Hockey Club 2 (Shreekishan K. 2).
Central Railway 8 (Anup Walmiki 4, Nilesh Mane, Nirmal S., Narad Bahadur, Roshan Keishem) beat United Bandra 6 (Daniel D’Souza, Royston Lobo, Hritik Gupta, Akshay Jadhav, Imran Z, Imran Khan).