T&T senior men’s hockey player Teague Marcano was on fire scoring eight goals, inclusive of a beaver trick, in four matches to lead Hampstead & Westminster to a perfect 4-0 start in the England Hockey League Super6s Indoor Premier Division at Repton School on the weekend.
On Sunday, Marcano and Hampstead & Westminster took control of the men’s Premier Division, after an enthralling second day of action in the Super 6s Championships.
Having won their first two games on Saturday, Hampstead & Westminster followed that up with another two victories on Sunday to stay perfect.
In the day’s opening game, Marcano and Kai Kaeppeler both scored two goals each as Hampstead & Westminster dispatched Reading 6-1.
The pair of Joe Sharp and skipper Marc Edwards also got on the scoresheet for Hampstead & Westminster before Daniel Cox grabbed a late consolation for Reading.
And Repton was then similarly impressively dispatched 5-1 to ensure a 100 per cent record for Hampstead & Westminster heading into next weekend’s decisive games.
Kaeppeler netted twice in the opening 11 minutes and James Sutcliffe made it 3-0 right at the end of the second quarter before strikes by Will Calnan and Edwards – the latter from a penalty corner – sandwiched a goal from Repton’s Simon Claris to seal the deal.
Hampstead’s place atop the table at the halfway mark was then secured by defending champions Surbiton slipping to a 5-3 defeat to Wimbledon in a local derby.
That result meant Wimbledon and Surbiton ended the day on nine points, three behind Hampstead & Westminster, with Sevenoaks and East Grinstead also on nine – meaning the battle for the four Super 6s Finals spots is shaping up to be a five-horse race in the men’s Premier Division.
A day earlier, Marcano fired in double as Hampstead & Westminster and Wimbledon played out a back-and-forth thriller that ended with the former eventually prevailing 8-6 after the lead changed multiple times.
Hampstead & Westminster then made it two from two with a 7-2 victory over Brooklands MU, with Marcano scoring four as Shipperley, Kaeppeler and Marc Edwards also found the target.
Throughout the next two weekends, January 15-16 and January 22-23 Marcano and his teammates will complete their eight-match schedule with clashes against East Grindstead, Surbiton, Holcombe and Sevenoaks at the end of which the top four teams from the Premier Division will qualify for the Jaffa Super 6s Finals Day on Sunday, January 30 - Hockey's Big Day In – at the Copper Box Arena.
However, it is uncertain how involved Marcano will be for Hampstead & Westminster over the final phase of the tournament after he was named in an 18-man national team along with older brother Tariq to represent this country at the eight-team Pan American Men’s Hockey Cup Tournament from January 19 to 30 in Santiago, Chile.
The younger Marcano, who was named as the “Most Valuable Player” at the Junior Pan American Hockey Championships in Chile last August is a key member of the Darren Cowie-coached “Calypso Stickmen” squad which will face the USA, Canada and Mexico in Group B of the competition which will serve as the region’s qualifier to the 16-team FIH Odisha World Cup to be hosted by India in 2023.
The remaining four teams in the Pan Am competition, three-time winners Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru comprise Pool A.