LAHORE, May 6: Three goals by captain Asfar Yaqoob and two by Awais-ur-Rehman enabled Lahore to qualify for the 2nd Motorway Police National Under-16 Hockey Championship final as they overpowered Faisalabad 7-6 in a thrilling semi-final at the National Hockey Stadium here on Monday.

In the second semi-final, Sialkot defeated Multan 4-2.

The semi-finals, unlike the earlier matches in the championship, were 60-minute affairs – with the total regulation time divided into three sessions of 20 minutes each.

In the first last-four match, Faisalabad led the first half 3-0. They then extended the lead to 4-1 in the second session before Lahore launched a heartening comeback in the third and final session to make it 4-4 until the end of the regulation time.

Then five penalty strokes were awarded to both the teams. Lahore converted three of those while Faisalabad only two.

Earlier, Faisalabad started off brilliantly when two-goal Dawood fired the first of his two goals in the sixth minute. Sohail made it 2-0 in the ninth minute.

Two-goal Mohsin compounded Lahore’s problems scoring his first in the 17th minute to hand Faisalabad a healthy-looking 3-0 lead. Atiq extended the lead to a solid 4-0 in the 24th minute. Late in the second session Lahore finally found the net as Awais scored his team’s first goal in the 34th minute through a field attempt.

In the last session of play, a resurgent Lahore side staged a magnificent comeback with their attacking game to earn three more goals. First Asfar sounded the board with back-to-back goals in the 44th and 51st minutes to reduce Faisalabad’s lead to 4-3 before Awais pumped in his second goal in the 54th minute to make the scoreline 4-4.

Asfar also converted a penalty stroke along with Adeel and Rana Sohail. For Faisalabad only Mohsin and Dawood could score on penalty-strokes as Lahore edged out Faisalabad 7-6.

In the second semi-final, Sialkot recorded a 4-2 win against Multan. While the first session remained goalless, Sialkot led 2-1 in the second session before closing the match with 4-2 scoreline.

Sialkot’s captain Nohaiz hit the board in the 34th minute on a penalty-corner, while Mansoor doubled the lead in the 36th minute. Wasim Akram made it 3-0 and Mohammad Arslan finally sealed the fate of the match with a 58th minute goal. Shahbaz (40th) and Amir Sohail(47th) scored for Multan.

On Tuesday, Faisalabad will clash with Multan in the third-position match followed by the final.