Stallions Men Hockey Club of Lagos on Friday in Abuja defeated Yobe Desert Rollers of Damaturu 2-1 in the ongoing 2022 Nigeria Hockey Federation (NHF) Super League.
They defeated their Yobe counterparts 2-1 in the last game of the day to qualify for classifications round match.
The victory match, played at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja, saw the stallions advancing to the round on Match Day seven.
They stamped their authority on the game as early as in the 30th minute, through Ayomide Usman who powered a penalty corner.
The Yobe Desert Rollers fought back but they were unable to penetrate the tight Stallions’ defence.
Quamdeen Bello of stallions doubled the lead in the 37th minute to put Stallions in firm control of the initially cagey game.
The physical Yobe men fought back with some penetrating runs from the midfield.
Before, Michael Agbaegbu of Yobe Rollers, eventually converted their chances in front of goal through penalty corners to have a point at 2-1.
Both teams rallied hard to put more goals up in the game and that brought conclusions to the game at 2-1.
Earlier, Stallions defeated their Lagos counterparts South West 2-0 before venturing to play against Yobe Desert Rollers.
In spite of beating the Desert men, they will still face each other in classifications round on Saturday for the fifth place and sixth place positions.
But on the Match Day 7 of the competition, Stallions now have three wins, one draw, three losses and placed fifth position on the log with 10 points and -2 goal difference.
Yobe Rollers won one, drew two and lost four and are in the sixth position with -5 goal difference.
After the match, Sunday Ogunruku, the Captain of Stallions, said the team didn’t come to settle for fifth and sixth place in the tournament rather than first position, but when the table turned around, there was no choice.
“ I am impressed with my team’s performance. It was an opportunity for the team to play in the tournament.
“We are building our team for future development.
“ Our goal right from the onset of this championship is to make it to the final but we couldn’t afterall; I am happy we were able to achieving something in the tournament,” he said.
He said his team trained together, but suffered the greatest defeats in the first two matches in the competition.
“ Though our kick-off was slow, due to fatigue of traveling long distance and we started to adjust gradually and we were able to reach the stage we are today,” he said.
He said the team’s performance was better than that of the previous game.
“ As faith will have it, we are going to play the fifth and sixth place match on Saturday with Yobe Desert Rollers. We will work hard and we are determined to win,” he said.
In the other men’s category of the competition, Yobe Desert Rollers lost to Police Machine 1-3; Kada Stars beat Niger Flickers 2-0; IGP flickers beat Delta ForceI 3-1 and Stallions beat South West 2-0.
In the women’s category of the competition, Benue Amazon beat IGP Babes 2-0; Yobe Queens beat Plateau Queens 1-0 and Kada Queens beat Delta Queens 3-1.
15 teams are participating in the Super League, with seven of them in the women’s category and the rest eight in the men’s category.
The Super League, which started on Saturday, ending on Sunday, is holding at the Hockey Stadium inside the Moshood Abiola National Stadium Abuja.