White Hart 1
Young Stars 3
Young Stars moved into the semi-finals of the pre-season Challenge Cup after coming from behind to beat White Hart 3-1 at the Corradino Hockey Complex on Sunday.
White Hart went ahead early on when Karl Tua netted with a crisp shot into the far corner from the top of the D.
Young Stars reacted but did not convert a couple of penalty corners.
Lively exchanges followed with White Hart missing a good chance to go further ahead when Keith Laferla shot wide from a good position.
On 16 minutes, Young Stars were awarded a penalty stroke and Edward Hughes missed equalising for his team when he pushed his shot wide from the spot.
Although Young Stars enjoyed territorial advantage, winning four penalty corners, White Hart were dangerous on the counter attack and went close to doubling their tally just before half-time.
This cup tie turned on its head as within a minute from the restart Jamie Mifsud made it one-all for Young Stars.
Two minutes later Sam Borg shot them ahead and Elton Cutajar added a third for Young Stars.
White Hart continued to share midfield exchanges, trying hard to reduce the arrears and Tua came close on 62 minutes when he saw his shot shave the right-hand post of the Young Stars goal.
Umpires: Paul Brincat and Emil Borg.
Rabat 0
Qormi 5
Qormi won four penalty corners in the first half and enjoyed territorial superiority but Rabat were well organised defensively and smothered most of Qormi’s attacks outside the D.
A trend that continued until a minute before the half-time break when Juan Sarcia saw his effort, off a rebound, trickle into the net, wrong-footing the Rabat goalkeeper and putting his side into the lead.
Nothing that happened up to the 53rd minute would have led one to believe that, when Steve Tanti scored Qormi’s second goal, the floodgates would open.
Two minutes later Jonathan Borg made it 3-0 despite Shawn Falzon’s vain effort to stop the ball before it crossed the dead ball line.
Kyle Micallef added a fourth and on 64 minutes John Williams scored Qormi’s fifth, pushing home after a prolonged action in the D.
Victory endorsed Qormi’s passage into the semi-finals.
Umpires: Edward Hughes and Manuel Imbroll.