NARROW WIN: SMK St Thomas players try to break the defence of their opponents from SMK Lake in the Boys U-15 first round match yesterday. — Photo courtesy of SMK Penrissen
KUCHING: Defending champions SMK Penrissen won all their first round matches to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Boys U-18 competition of the MSSM Kuching Hockey Championship at the Sarawak Hockey Stadium yesterday.
They will first meet SMK Paku in group X at 8am today and then face-off with SMK Tun Abdul Razak for a berth in the final.
In group Y, the quarter-finalists were last year’s third placed winner SMK Sains, SMK Lake and runners-up SMK Bau.
SMK Sains’ first match is against SMK Bau, to be followed by the match against SMK Lake.
Meanwhile, in the Boys U-15 contest, defending champions SMK Penrissen topped group A in the preliminary round by thumping SMK Semerah Padi 4-0 and SMK Matang Hilir 2-0.
They have qualified for the semi-finals where they will take on SMK St Thomas who drew 0-0 with SMK St Joseph, beat SMK Lake 1-0 but lost 0-2 to SMK Sains.
The other semi-final will be fought between SMK St Joseph and SMK Matang Hilir.
The final for the Boys U-15 will be played at around 4pm, following which the Boys U-18 final will be staged. The Girls U-18 and U-15 competitions will be held starting tomorrow and Saturday.
Seven teams will be vying for the crown in the Girls U-18 contest. They are defending champions SMK Penrissen, SMK Bau, SMK St Teresa in group A and SMK Lake, SMK Paku, SMK Padawan and SMK Matang Jaya in group B.
The Girls U-15 competition will see the participation of only six teams, defending champions SMK Bau is in group A with SMK Lake and SMK Matang Hilir while the teams in group B are SMK Santubong, SMK Semerah Padi and SMK Penrissen.