Mohali, Sep 3 (IANS) The Sports Authority of India National Centre of Excellence (SAI NCOE), Sonipat secured their third straight victory to go on top of the table while Roundglass Hockey Academy secured a bonus point via a shootout win against Naval Tata Academy, Jamshedpur after both teams played out a thrilling 4-4 draw on Day Three of the second edition of the Punjab Hockey League (U 21) which is being played at the Olympian Balbir Singh Senior International Hockey Stadium here on Wednesday.
SDAT Hockey Academy, Tamil Nadu, and SGPC Hockey Academy, Amritsar, also notched up their first wins of the league.
SAI Sonipat secured their third consecutive victory in the league with a narrow 1-0 victory over PIS Surjit Hockey Academy, Jalandhar, in the second match of the day. A penalty corner conversion by Navraj Singh in the 42nd minute was enough for the SAI side to secure their victory.
Meanwhile, Roundglass Hockey Academy and Naval Tata Academy, Jamshedpur, played out a thrilling 4-4 draw in the final match of the day. Roundglass received a bonus point after they prevailed 3-0 in the shootout. Roundglass took a two-goal lead within six minutes through Gursewak Singh and Jobanpreet Singh, but conceded three back-to-back goals to give Naval Tata the lead.
Tushar Parmar scored a brace, and Premchand Soy scored the other. RGHA brought the game back to square in the 42nd minute through Gurwinder Singh. Naval Tata took the lead again in the 47th minute after Ashish Tani Purti converted a penalty corner, but RGHA fought back to make the scores level again in the 52nd minute through Gurwinder Singh.
In the shootout, Roundglass Hockey Academy goalkeeper Jeevan Singh did the star turn, saving all three penalties of Naval Tata taken by Afridi, Ganga Topno, and Tintus Hemrom while Japnit Singh, Arshdip Singh, and Sunny Singh converted their penalties for Roundglass to give them the bonus point.
In the first match of the day, SDAT Hockey Academy blanked Namdhari Hockey Academy 4-0 to secure their first victory in the league. Goals from C. Shibi Yuvaraj and M. Gowtham gave the team from Tamil Nadu a 2-0 lead in the first half. S. Krishnan converted two penalty corners each in the third and fourth quarters as SDAT completed a comfortable victory.
SGPC Hockey Academy, Amritsar, recorded a 7-3 victory over Ghumanhera Risers Hockey Academy, New Delhi, to register their first victory of the league. SGPC took a two-goal lead within seven minutes of the game, with Sukhveer Singh scoring a brace, but Ghumanhera fought back to equalize with goals from Tushar and Parikshit.
SGPC reclaimed the lead in the 24th minute by a goal from Jashanpreet Singh, only to be drawn level again in the 33rd minute from a goal by Nikil. The team from Amritsar regained the lead at the end of the third quarter from a penalty corner conversion by Kamaljeet Singh. In the final quarter, SGPC took the game away from Ghumanhera Risers with a hat trick from Sukhdev Singh, who converted three penalty corners.
–IANS
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