Police nab Mombasa Sports Club in hockey league

Sports News: Hockey Police vs Mombasa Sports Club(MSC). Kenya Police Edmong Simiyu(l) with the ball as Mombasa Sports Club Mariano Emadali blocks when they played Premier League at City Park. Police scored 8-0. ON 06/09/15 PHOTO: JENIPHER WACHIE

Kenya Police drubbed Mombasa Sports Club (MSC) men 8-0 in a Kenya Hockey Union (KHU) men's Premier League match played yesterday at City Park Stadium.

Hat-tricks from Police hitmen Moses Cheplaiti and Captain Brian Saina together with a goal each from Samuel Wokila and James Munyi were enough to give the 2013 champions the victory.

Skipper Saina told FeverPitch: "Our main objective this season is to reclaim our title, a victory at a time counts, if we remain focused and keep fighting, the trophy will surely return to us at the end."

Saina added that they were in good form but failed to utilise chances to score more goals in the first half.

"The league is tightly contested hence the need to score more goals just in case the eventual winner is to be decided on goal difference. We lost many chances in the first half which would have given us a better score line, we improved in the second half, scoring six (goals) and we look forward to do better in our next tie."

Cheplaiti opened the scores for the law enforcers six minutes into play as he sent the ball home past MSC goalkeeper Evans Juma to take an early lead. Four minutes later, he scored from the left from a Willis Okeyo pass to give Police a 2-0 advantage before the quarter-hour mark.

MSC in a move to stop the goal hungry Police resorted to defensive play that pinned them in their own half for the better part of the game. However, Police still dominated the game in all aspects but lost many chances to score goals and increase their tally, with the first half ending 2-0 in their favour.

Police began the second half on the offensive once again, restricting the Coast-based players to their own half. Police continued to attack and their efforts paid off in the 46th minute through a Wokila field goal.

Two minutes later Cheplaiti completed his hat-trick to make it 4-0. Veteran striker Munyi hit the board in the 51st minute before Saina converted a penalty corner in the 53rd minute. Saina added his second and a seventh for Police on the 58th before slotting his third a minute later. Timothy Kipruto wasted an opportunity to put his name on the score sheet, failing to score through a flick after a foul in the circle four minutes later.

MSC returned home empty-handed as they had earlier on lost 4-1 to Western Jaguars. Jaguars Victor Chidi broke the deadlock in the in the 27th minute as he scored the only goal of the first half. Gerald Simiyu made it two in the 43rd minute while James Juma made it three four minutes later.

Fredrick Arika Arika pulled one back for MSC in the 59th minute, Gibson Machinji sealed the 4-1 victory in the 67th minute.

In another Premier League encounter, defending champions Butali Sugar Warriors hammered Parklands Sports Club 7-1 to remain on course to retaining their title. Maxwell Fuchaka scored a brace for the champions while Barnabas Odhiambo, Brian Musasia, Seth Oburu, Emmanuel Simiyu and Vincent Odhiambo scored one-goal a piece.  Owen Oduor scored Parklands' consolation goal.

In the men's second division, Thika Rovers inflicted more pain on Impala with a 2-1 victory.