LAHORE, May 10 Five departmental and three Punjab teams entered the quarter-final stage of the 29th National Junior Hockey Championship here on Monday.
Punjab Reds, Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), Police and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) qualified from Pool 'A', while in pool 'B' Customs, Punjab (Greens), National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and Punjab (Whites) will vie for the semi-final slot.
Meanwhile, five matches were decided on the last day of the preliminary round.
A match-winner by Rana Umair on a field attempt in the 14th minute helped Customs beat Punjab Greens 1-0.
One goal each by Mohammad Faisal Qadir (35th minute) and Mohammad Arslan Qadir (41st minute), both through penalty-corner conversions, helped NBP earn a 2-0 win against Punjab Whites.
Three-goal Rana Sohail Riaz propelled Pakistan Board to a 5-2 win against Islamabad. He sounded the board in the 11th, 22nd and 62nd minutes. Mohammad Bilal (39th and 46th mins) added two more. For the losing side, Israr Hussain Shah (sixth min) and Waqas Hussain (50th min) were the key scorers.
A 56th-minute goal by Mohammad Fayyaz helped Police hold SSGC to a 2-2 draw. Earlier, Zulqarnain Haider (ninth min) scored the goal for Police. For SSGC Akbar Ali (17th and 54th mins) was the scorer.
A solitary goal by Tariq Nazir (64th min) carved out a 1-0 win for Pakistan Air Force (PAF) against PIA.
