LAHORE, Feb 1: Faisalabad fought hard for 9-8 win on penalty strokes, against Vehari while Lahore beat Sargodha 3-1 to enter the semifinals of the fourth Under-16 Punjab Inter-District Hockey Championship at the National Hockey Stadium on Saturday.

In the well contested quarterfinals, a 58th minute equaliser from Khurram Shahzad helped Vehari restore the parity 1-1 and put the result on penalty strokes. The attempt to get results on penalty strokes failed as both the sides converted four each. Faisalabad eventually won when Hafiz Ihtesham of Vehari missed the fourth penalty-stroke on sudden death.

In regulation time, Faisalabad took the lead through Shehbaz Ahmad who scored through the first penalty corner. Half time scoe was 1-0.

 Vehari equalised through Khurram, who also converted a penalty-corner.

For Faisalabad, in first round of penalty-strokes, Fazal Abbas, Naseer Ahmed, Qasim Ikram, Zahid Rafique converted their penalties while Qaiser Dildar failed.

During the sudden death round, Fazal, Naseer, Qasim and Zahid were successful for the winners.

For the losers, Khurram Shehzad, Abu Zar, Hafiz Ihtisham and Haroon converted their penalty-strokes while Shafqat Rasool missed . During the sudden death, Khurram, Shafqat, Abuzar remained successful before Hafiz Ihtisham wasted his shot.

Two goals by Waqas Akbar helped Lahore beat Sargodha.

Lahore took the lead through Mohammad Irslan when he converted first penalty-corner in the 17th minute. The lead remained intact till the half time.

Waqas banged home a field goal in the 51st minute and struck his second four minutes later to make it 3-0.

Sargodha scored the consolation goal through Adeel Akram in the 56th minute. Sunday’s fixtures (semifinals): Okara vs Faisalabad at 11am. Lahore vs Toba Tek Singh at 1pm.