KARACHI: Railways carved out a solitary goal victory over Army to stay unbeaten and top pool C on their way to making quarter-finals in the 33rd National Junior Hockey Championship at the Hockey Club of Pakistan Stadium on Tuesday.

With 2-1 win over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 1-0 over Punjab Yellows under their belt, Railways asserted supremacy to maintain clean slate.

Hamza Wahed scored the all important goal for winners in 41st minute of the play.

Despite defeat and containing opponents to a lone goal, Army finished runners-up and also cruised into last eight.

In the other match, defending champions Wapda cruised to an emphatic 5-1 victory over Customs to head group D. The two teams were, however, through to the quarters.

Wapda drew blood through M. Ahad who converted team’s third penalty corner in sixth minute after the two PC’s went unfruitful. M. Umar Hamdi consolidated the lead with his sizzling drive of sixth penalty corner in 26th minute. Bilal Mahmood enhanced the lead to 3-0 in 39th minute before Customs find the net in the very next minute through Mateen to make score 1-3.

Mudassir Ali and Ali Bahadur netted one goal apiece in 44th and 53rd minutes for the winning outfit.

In the third match, a brace of goals by Ghulam Abbas and Hammad Ahsan guided Punjab Colours to a 9-2 defeat on Sindh Colours to finish runners-up in pool A.

Qasim Ahmed, M. Asif, Mohsin Sabir, Faizan Alvi and Hunain Anwar netted one goal apiece for winners.

Sindh Colours slammed twice through Qasimullah in 38th and 58th minutes.

Meanwhile, the organisers have revised the draw of quarter-final matches.

Wednesday’s fixtures:

Quarter-finals:

At 7.00am: National Bank of Pakistan v Army

At 9.00am: Wapda v Pakistan Education Board

At 3.00pm: PIA v Customs

At 5.00pm: Punjab Colours v Railways.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2014