New York, Feb 27
A week full of international sporting events along with a visit by the International Olympic Committee to evaluate Big Apple's bid for hosting the 2012 Olympic Games culminated with GOA Reds from Toronto and USA ladies taking the 2005 Big Apple Hockey International Indoor titles at Riverbank State Park in New York.

The tightly fought men's final between two veteran teams, the defending champions Charlestown Chiefs and past title holders GOA Reds, started with Wayne Fernandes hitting the post followed by some outstanding play by both seasoned goalkeepers, Hari Kant for GOA Reds and Jon O'Haire for the Charlestown Chiefs. However, it was the defensive effort of Pat Cota of the Chiefs that left the always elusive Kenny Pereira of GOA grinning in amazement. After Ryan Langford beat Kant on a beauty of a goal, going across, high, on a narrow angle from the right, for a 1-0 Chiefs lead, Pereira took off for the equalizer, pulling O'Haire out of position for an easy opportunity. In a quick move, Cota backhanded Pereira's attempt from close range at the goal line to deny the GOA forward.

Second half saw a very determined Wayne Fernandes take over for GOA, scoring a hat trick much to the frustration of the yellow carded Rutger Weise and his teammates. Fernandes scored two quick goals at the start of the half and sealed the victory ten minutes later with his final tally for 3-1 score. For his outstanding play, Fernandes was declared the Most Valuable Player of the tournament. This was his third such honor at this indoor classic.

Earlier in the semifinals, GOA Reds easily defeated Brooklyn Allstars 6-1 and Charlestown Chiefs defeated the Mavericks 5-1.

In the ladies final, perhaps buoyed by the success of their men's team, GOA women started out in a strong fashion with Wayne Fernandes' younger sister Joanna leading the way with a quick goal on penalty corner that was followed by Keri Doherty's score for a 2-0 lead. However, this was short lived as the USA women bounced back with four unanswered goals to repeat as champions. After a penalty stroke goal by Jen Mathis, Tina McDavitt intercepted an errant pass from Joanna Fernandes and fed Kim Susko on a 3-on-1 break for the tying goal. Susko added a second goal from a penalty corner rebound to give USA 3-2 lead. Goalkeeper Donna Chung did her bit by keeping the young GOA team at bay as Sarah Broderick made the final score 4-2 on another penalty corner.

Veteran Debbie Phillips of team USA took the honors as the tournament MVP and Haley Douds (Sprit Eagles), Kristen McCormick (Cape Ann) shared the honor of being named Dita's Most Promising Juniors.

In the semifinals, the USA ladies won 5-1 over the Minutewomen and GOA ladies defeated NYC ladies 4-1.

The seventh version of the Big Apple Hockey International Indoor Tournament featured 15 ladies teams and only five men's teams. It was surprising to see that the recently selected men's indoor national team was not at this tournament while the women's national squad was. Lack of funding for the national men's squad and time for NAPL season were the reasons speculated by some for this.

On a positive note, kudus to the members BAHF organizing committee for appearing along with a number of field hockey enthusiasts on the nationally televised CBS Early Show on the morning of February 24th to promote the tournament and the sport. This has to be a first for field hockey in the USA and its good to see someone finally take a lead in this regard!

Next on the schedule for BAHF is the Big Apple Six-A-Side Memorial Tournament to be held on May 28th - 29th at DeWitt Clinton High School in New York City, featuring four divisions: Men, Women, U-19, and U-16. Following this tournament will be the much anticipated ¿winner-take-all¿ Big Apple Hockey Festival, a four-day international field hockey tournament over Labor Day weekend, September 2nd to September 5th, 2005. BAHF is currently accepting applications for this tournament where prize money is awarded to the winners. Please see www.bigapplehockey.com for details. .

Men
1st Place - GOA Reds: Hari Kant, Ed Fernandes, Wayne Fernandes, Conrad Fernandes, Ken Pereira, Juggy Mahal, Trent Randall

2nd Place - Charlestown Chiefs: Jon O'Haire, Manzer Iqbal, Phil Sykes, Pat Cota, Ryan Langford, Brian Schledorn, Don Warner, Rutger Weise

Most Valuable Player: Wayne Fernandes, GOA Reds


Women
1st Place - Team USA: Donna Chung, Sandra Cook, Keli Smith, Meredith Kirkpatrick, Lauren Mazziotto, Tina. McDavitt, Jen Mathis, Debbie Phillips,Kim Susko, Denise. Zelenak, Jill Dedman, Sarah Broderick

2nd Place - GOA Reds: Amy Agulay, Jen Cutter, Kerri Doherty, AJ Smith, Laura Dowling, Deb Cuthbert, Cindy Gahunia, Joanna Fernandes

Most Valuable Player: Debbie Phillips, Team USA

Dita's Most Promising Juniors: Haley Douds (Sprit Eagles), Kristen McCormick (Cape Ann)