Thora take home Hayman Trophy
The victorious Thomians - Pic by Nilan Maligaspe
Dr. R. L. Hayman Trophy returned to S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia (STC) after a long-lapse of six years when they reclaimed it in style defeating their arch-rivals Royal College 14-7, at the end of the second-leg, last evening at the Sugathadasa waters.
The aggregate, thus, after the 29th edition read, 37-17.
Opening moments of the second-leg saw enthusiastic attempts by both schools. Royal finally scored the first goal of the evening at the fifth minute. Though both the camps missed out on converting, it was the first-leg winners’ misfortunate the most.
To the utter disbelief of Thomian supporters, at least half-a-dozen shots proved futile, with the opening quarter finishing one-nil in favour of Royal. Second quarter and Thomians under pressure to open the scoring, after much-await, did so through the hands of their captain No. 7 Dirhen Dias. In fact, in a repeat of the first-leg, Dias made it one-all, before no.6 M. Gurusinghe scored another, in a sign of breaking the shackles.
Title-holders, Royalists, coming into the contest trailing by little over a dozen of goals, were also quick to equalise through their third. That soon became four, despite a mild stop by the Thomian goalie.
Thomian skipper, and his team, having convincingly bagged the first-leg 23-10, lacked support, ending the first-half, three-all.
The third quarter started off with the scoring of No. 7 B. Jayathilaka after navigating the ball single-handedly. Royal No.7’s opposite, Thomian captain Dias, made the scoring even, again. No. 10 R. Kurukulasooriya of STC provided the lead and no. 4 M. Zuhair making it two and leading by two as well.
No.4 STC scored a surprise goal, firing a long-range shot, piercing the waters. Rivals royals returned to scoring courtesy to no. 4 Yasandu De Silva, changing the score line 5-8.
In the fourth and the final quarter, school by the sea was the first to score off their No. 10. No. 3 Kalansooriya delivered the tenth goal for his side, and that became 11. In the dying moments of the game, both the schools scored for their share.