IOCL cruise to win over ASC in Ozone Group hockey league
Bangalore   14-Jan-2011

IndianOil (IOCL) warmed up for the tougher contests ahead with yet another goal spree, crushing Army Services Corps (ASC) 8-0 in the Ozone Group State Super Division hockey league here on Friday.

IOCL started off unconvincingly but the floodgates opened with a Roshan Minz strike in the 28th minute. Hamza Mujtaba doubled the tally in the very next minute though ASC protested the second strike, halting play for a few minutes.

The second half saw more intent in IOCL's attacks as the title favourites swelled their tournament tally to a whopping 19 goals from three outings. Inderjit Singh took aim from the top of the D to score the third in the 39th minute.

Drag-flicker V Raghunath then converted two successive penalty corner strikes in as many minutes but in totally contrasting pattern. The first of the Raghunath strikes was a perfect grounder to the left of the goal while the next one ended up on the top right corner of the goal.

ASC substituted custodian R Lakra with Guru Siddaiah right after the fifth goal. The lanky Gagandeep Junior made it 6-0 in the 54th minute before Inderjit rounded off the tally with a superb brace.

Meanwhile, defending champions BPCL overcame initial glitches with a solid second-half to outclass Army Green 4-1, with three of their four strikes coming in the concluding session.

Results: IOCL: 8 (Roshan Minz 28th, Hamza Mujtaba 29th, Inderjit Singh 39th, 60th, 69th, VR Raghunath 41st PC, 43rd PC, Gagandeep Junior 54th) bt ASC: 0; Army Red: 7 (S Armugam 12th PC, 41st, CS Xalxo 15th PC, S Ali 31st, 48th, MC Singh 57th, 63rd) bt MEG: 0; BPCL: 4 (Jarnail Singh 27th, Tushar Khandker 48th pC, 64th, William Xalco 52nd PC) bt Army Green: 1 (Lavpreet Singh 32nd).