Kerugoya Girls reign supreme: Central Region Champions beat Kabare in final to retain title

KENYA SECONDARY SCHOOLS TERM ONE GAMES Central Region Kerugoya Girls' Mitchel Akoth (left) clear ball on Deborah Masubu of Bura Girls, Coast region, during Kenya Secondary Schools term One games at State House Grounds on Tuesday, April 11, 2017. [PHOTO: JONAH ONYANGO/STANDARD]

 

Four-time East Africa champions earn slot at national games.

Kerugoya Girls retained the Central Region Girls hockey title after beating Kabare 4-2 in the finals yesterday at Alliance Boys School.

The victory saw the four-time East Africa champions earn a ticket to this year’s Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association National Term One games set for next month in Embu. 

At the nationals, Kerugoya will be eyeing a maiden national title despite boasting of four East Africa trophies.

Kerugoya coach Joseph Maina said their aim now is to improve after a disappointing last year where they were eliminated at the group stage.

“We have achieved our first goal of the year. Our focus now is the national games because we want to perform better than we did last year. We were knocked out at the preliminaries, but this year we are determined to return to the East Africa games,” Maina said.

Enroute to the finals, Kerugoya were forced to toil harder for victory against unrelenting Karima Girls. Not ready to go down without a proper fight Karima stretched Kerugoya to the limit forcing a penalty shootout to decide the winner.

Experience saw the national games regulars Kerugoya carry the day as they outwitted Karima goalkeeper to hit the target twice for a 2-1 win.

Kabare on the other hand dismissed their hosts Alliance 1-0 to secure a place in the finals. In boys semis, Thika beat Kirinyaga 2-0 whereas Kerugoya edged out Githiga 1-0 to set the finals clash.

Hosts Alliance beat perennial rivals Mang'u 12-7 to bag the rugby 15s gong. Enjoying home support, Alliance impressed the crowds from their last four encounter where they thrashed Pioneer School 22-6 before crowning their day with a trophy and a ticket to the nationals.

Mang'u had excelled in the semis by beating Mutoga 17-0 before falling when it mattered most.

Loreto Limuru won the girls basketball title with a resounding 53-30 against Alliance.

In the semi-finals, Loreto were on fire routing Kerugoya girls 60-31 to book a date with Alliance who had beaten Gatanga 49-29.

Mang'u and Kahuho were crowned girls and boys champions after registering an identical 16-10 score in the finals.