De­fence Force (men), Mag­no­lias (women) and Queen's Park Crick­et Club (vet­er­ans Over-40) were all with­in one win of re­peat­ing as cham­pi­ons when they ad­vanced to their re­spec­tive di­vi­sion­al fi­nals in the 20th edi­tion of the Ven­tures Hock­ey Club In­ter­na­tion­al In­vi­ta­tion­al In­door Hock­ey Tour­na­ment Sun­day.

This af­ter the trio se­cured con­trast­ing semi­fi­nal wins ear­li­er in the day at the Wood­brook Youth Fa­cil­i­ty, Port-of-Spain.

In the men's Open semi­fi­nals, the Army/Coast-Guard com­bi­na­tion team looked in dan­ger of falling short of a spot in the fi­nal as last year's run­ners-up Queen's Park Crick­et Club (QPCC) raced in­to a 3-0 lead in­side the first five min­utes via goals from Alexan­der Rowe in the first and third min­utes and Aidan Elias, a minute lat­er.

How­ev­er, Isa­iah Scott pro­vid­ed some hope of a re­vival for the de­fend­ing cham­pi­on when he scored on the stroke of half-time as they trailed 3-1 at the end of the first 15 min­utes.

In the sec­ond half, it was all De­fence Force with Mar­cus James scor­ing in the 18th and 21st min­utes to lev­el the con­test at 3-3 be­fore team-mates Ghard­el El­cock (22nd) and Tariq Singh (25th) added field goals to seal the stun­ning turn-around.

In the fi­nal, De­fence Force came up against Guyana's Saints who held off Po­lice 4-3 with two goals each from Jabari Lovell (sec­ond & fourth), and Os­haz­ay Sa­vory (15th & 17th) while Po­lice got a goal each from Akim Tou­s­saint (15th), Justin Be­har­ry (19th penal­ty) and vet­er­an Roger Daniel in the 30th.

When both teams met in the round-robin phase Saints de­feat­ed De­fence Force 4-1 to top the five-team pool ahead of De­fence Force and Malvern on goal-dif­fer­ence af­ter all three teams fin­ished with 3-1 records and nine points each.

Mag­no­lias, Paragon reach women's fi­nal

Ti­tle-hold­er, Mag­no­lias, and last year's beat­en fi­nal­ist Paragon reached the fi­nal of the Women's Open Di­vi­sion with com­fort­able semi­fi­nal wins.

In the first semi­fi­nal, Saman­tha Olton (2nd & 7th) and Sa­van­nah De Fre­itas (19th & 20th) scored two goals each and Amie Olton (8th), the oth­er for Mag­no­lias in their 5-1 spank­ing of Po­lice 'B who got their lone item off the stick of Car­olyn Deane in the eighth minute.

In the sec­ond semi­fi­nal, Fe­li­cia Ash­by scored twice, in the 12th and 20th minute to lead Paragon past host club Ven­tures 4-0.

Paragon al­so got a goal each from Avion Bar­clay in the 21st, and Zene Hen­ry, three min­utes lat­er.

In the Vet­er­ans Over-40 semi­fi­nals, round-robin win­ners Po­lice won by de­fault from Notre Dame while de­fend­ing cham­pi­on QPCC whipped Fa­ti­ma 3-1.

Ven­tures In­door Hock­ey re­sults

Yes­ter­day:

Men's Open semi­if­nals:

Saints 4 (Jabari Lovell 2nd, 4th, Os­haz­ay Sa­vory 15th, 17th) vs Po­lice 3 (Akim Tou­s­saint 15th, Justin Be­har­ry 19th pen, Roger Daniel 30th)

De­fence Force 5 (Mar­cus James 18th, 21st, Isa­iah Scott 15th, Ghard­el El­cock 22nd, Tariq Singh 25th) vs QPCC 3 (Alexan­der Rowe 1st, 3rd, Aidan Elias 4th)

Women's Open semi­fi­nals:

Mag­no­lias 5 (Saman­tha Olton 2nd, 7th, Sa­van­nah De Fre­itas 19th, 20th, Amie Olton 8th) vs Po­lice 'B 1 (Car­olyn Deane 8th)

Paragon 1 (Fe­li­cia Ash­by 12th, 20th, Avion Bar­clay 21st, Zene Hen­ry 24th) vs Ven­tures 0

Vet­er­ans Over-40 semi­fi­nals:

Po­lice 5 vs Notre Dame 0 - by de­fault

QPCC 3 (Ryan Cowie 11th, Edrich Fran­cois 12th, Raphael Govia 24th) vs Fa­ti­ma 1 (Wayne Nieves 13th)

Sat­ur­day:

Men's Open:

Pool A:

Malvern 10 (Tariq Mar­cano 10th, 17th, 18th, 23rd, 23rd, 27th, 29th, Tyrese Ben­jamin 6th, 11th, Joshua Jack­son 11th) vs UWI Li­ons 1 (Doniko Co­dring­ton 26th)

Fa­ti­ma 3 (Ken­ny Brath­waith 14th, Aidan Mo­hammed 19th, Joshua Olton 29th) vs UWI Li­ons 1 (Kn­er­ick Hunte 9th)

Malvern 1 (Jo­van Wren 20th) vs Saints 0

Saints 4 (Jabari Lovell 2nd, Tivesarid Gar­nett 14th , Bara­ka Gar­nett 19th, Sha­keem Fausette 24th) vs De­fence Force 1 (David Cok­er 18th)

Pool B:

UWI Black Birds 5 (Mikael Year­wood 2nd, 13th, Che Roach 15th, Kho­di Gib­son 21st, Ryan Cowie 29th) vs Paragon 0

Po­lice 3 (Akim Tou­s­saint 4th, Justin Be­har­ry 6th pen, Wayne Leg­erton 29th) vs Notre Dame 2 (Nicholas White­man 15th, Dil­lon Tam Wing 19th)

QPCC 5 (Kadeem For­tune 14th, 21st, Mahin­der Mali 5th, Cade Lue Sue 14th, Ethan Reynos 20th) vs UWI Black Birds 0

QPCC 4 (Cade Lue Sue 1st, 23rd, Mahin­der Mali 29th, Kadeem For­tune 30th) vs Po­lice 3 (Jabari Perez 8th, Nicholas Grant 9th, Justin Be­har­ry 24th)

Women's Open:

Pool A:

Mag­no­lias 5 (Saman­tha Olton 8th, 10th, 17th, Sa­van­nah De Fre­itas 15th, Kait­lyn Olton 19th) vs UWI Black Birds 0

Ven­tures 4 (Cyan Lue Sue 12th, 17th, Anya Sealey 4th, Jedyah Kistow 29th) vs Po­lice 'A' 0

Ven­tures 3 (Anya Sealey 6th, 30th, Aman­da George 28th) vs UWI Black Birds 2 (Mir­a­cle-Ann King 11th, Kher­dine Gon­za­les 16th)

Mag­no­lias 14 (Kait­lyn Olton 12th, 23rd, 25th, Saman­tha Olton 13th, 14th, 17th, Sa­van­nah De Fre­itas 15th, 18th, 20th, Bri­an­na Govia 1st, 28th, Sha­ni­ah De Fre­itas 4th, 6th, Nata­nia Rowe 10th) vs Po­lice 'A' 0

Pool B:

Saints 3 (Makay­lah Poole 4th, 19th, Tekiesha De Leon 3rd) vs UWI Li­ons 0

Paragon 2 (Monor­ka Lewis-Weekes 5th, Zene Hen­ry 24th) vs Saints 1 (Makay­lah Poole 16th)

Vet­er­ans Di­vi­sion:

Po­lice 14 (An­to­nio Quashie 3rd, 4th, 9th, 17th, Wayne Leg­erton 3rd, 18th, 27th. At­i­ba Whit­ting­ton 6th, 28th, Nicholas Wren 9th, 25th, Ker­win Dun­can 24th, 29th, Roger Daniel 19th) vs Notre Dame 1 (Joel Le Gen­dre 15th)

Po­lice 4 (Wayne Leg­erton 20th, 28th, Roger Daniel 3rd, An­to­nio Quashie 30th) vs Fa­ti­ma 1 (Shane Newal­lo 16th)

Fa­ti­ma 7 (Shane Newal­lo 4th, 16th, 19th, 20th, 30th, Jean-Paul Ram­baran 15th, Rose-Ann Reyes 24th) vs Notre Dame 2 (Gre­go­ry Gar­raway 8th, Sel­wyn King 28th)