Red hot police reclaim title: Cops march on to KHU crown with matches to spare

Kenya Police celebrate after winning this season with many goals. ON 13/01/2017(Jenipher Wachie,Standard)

Police lock-up Vultures to reclaim league title

Law enforcers teach varsity students hockey lessons.

Kenya Police are the new Kenya Hockey Union men’s Premier League champions.

Yesterday, on-form police trounced Kenyatta University (KU) Vultures 6-1 to reclaim the title they last won in 2013.

While well set to end a three-year trophy drought, the law enforcers’ victory had been long coming. Their playing tactics and strategies worked out as they took the lead on the league standings from the onset.

Their smooth run was, however, slowed down by a 1-0 loss away to Western Jaguars delaying their victory party but they kept pushing and eventually accomplished their mission with two matches in hand.

Oliver Echenje, the police captain, was over the moon saying hard work paid dividends.

“Our approach to the league was focused on a victory at a time, but we never lost sight of our main objective of winning the league title.

“Credit goes to every member of the team because it is through individual effort combined with team work that resulted in success,” Echenje said.

He said even though they already won the league title, they are still determined to end the season on a high. “We still have two matches and we want to win so we can end the season well. Having won the title already does not mean that we now have to be complacent,” Echenje said.

Police will play Wazalendo today then later they will take on former champions Butali Sugar Warriors in the last match of the 2017 season.

Against Vultures, the red-hot Police did not leave anything to chance as they sought to secure the trophy.

International Willis Okeyo revealed their intentions in the match putting them in the lead two minutes into play after successfully converting a penalty corner.

The students then tightened their defence resisting Police efforts of adding a second goal. The law enforcers had all their units in fine form dominating all aspects of the game. However, the Vultures stopped their attempts of adding more goals for the first quarter to end with Police leading by a solitary goal.

Police intensified their goal hunt in the second quarter as the attacking trio of Amos Barkibir, Calvins Kanu and Moses Cheplaiti surged deep into the students’ territory but were kept at bay.