Eagles, Bucks capture JHF Under-21 titles
MALVERN Eagles and Liguanea Bucks captured the first-ever Jamaica Hockey Federation (JHF) Under-21 Women’s and Men’s League titles in finals played at Mona Hockey Turf last Friday.
The leagues were devised in order to for the country to select Under-21 teams to participate in the 2020 Junior Pan American Championship to be held in Chile.
Jamaica will be hosting the qualifying matches in March of next year as they seek to qualify for the Pan-Am Championships.
Malvern Eagles secured a fighting 2-1 win over a mixed Liguanea Lites aggregation consisting boys and girls to become the first holders of the Women’s Under-21 League.
The Liguanea Bucks gained their first hold on the Men’s Under-21 title after clipping Tavern Trailblazers 1-0.
Antoinette Baxter opened the scoring for the Malvern Eagles within two minutes of the first half. Liguanea Lites, who are the only mixed team in the league, brought themselves back into contention when Rewar Ibar found the equaliser in the 18th minute.
Both teams tried desperately in the second half to break the deadlock with some close chances being wasted. The keen tussles continued until Imauny Linton scored in the 40th minute to give the Eagles a 2-1 lead, which they held to the end.
In the men’s final the Bucks got the lone goal of the match through Deandra Cowan in the 19th minute.
Latoya Sanchez from the Malvern Eagles was named the most valuable player (MVP) in the women’s final, while Bucks’ Shemar Gordon was named MVP for the men’s final, while the tournament’s MVP was Tae-Malik Hanson from Liguanea Lites team.
The top goalkeepers in both competitions were Brean Blackwood from Lites, and Rashead Johnson from Bucks.
Four teams participated in the Men’s Under-21 round-robin competition, with the others being Malvern Falcons, and Portmore Suns. The top-two teams from the preliminary round contested the final.
The other teams that competed in the four-team Women’s Under-21 competition were Portmore Waves and Tavern Wild Cats. The top -two teams from the preliminary rounds played in the final.
—Gerald Reid
