by Jawwad Qamar

New York, June 8: In the midst of an unexpected heat wave, with temperatures hovering in the high 90¿s on Sunday, Tri-State Falcons were the surprised men¿s 2007/2008 North East Field Hockey Association playoff winners while the Greenwich Rovers took the ladies title to the surprise of no one.

After conceding an early goal four minutes into the match on a nifty penetration into the circle by the ever elusive Patrick Stutz, the Tri-State Falcons scored two unanswered goals to lift the John Greer Cup.

Except for a number of fine runs from the right flank by Dwyane Mendz, and a number of poor finishes by the flashy Randy Christie in front of the goal, the Falcons did not have much to show for in the first half. However, Christie made amends seven minutes into the second half by connecting on a beautiful feed by Ewen Barnaby to level score at 1-1. Following an exchange of failed penalty corner attempts by both sides, Falcon¿s Chris Lowkuan swooped in to flick a rebound high under the cross bar with six minutes left on the clock for the go ahead goal. Rye was not done yet and had golden opportunity on back to back penalty corner in the dying seconds but Tri-State keeper Garfield Stewart was up to the task making two excellent saves to save the day for the Falcons.

The fourth ranked Tri-State Falcons got the day started by upsetting the top ranked and undefeated Greenwich I in the first semifinal, on penalty strokes (4-3) after a 1-1 tie in regulation. Greenwich I, the defending champions and Michael Grannum Trophy winners for 2007/2008 regular season, suffered from a depleted bench due the unavailability of key players and paid dearly for it. The second semifinal saw Rye easily defeat Greenwich II 3-0 on the strength of two goals from Aico van Nunen.

The first half of women's playoff final between the defending champions Greenwich Rovers and the second ranked Big Apple HC for the Anthony 'Pudding' Clarke Cup was a sloppy affair with missed chances by both teams, notably on penalty corners and it seemed both were only interested in set pieces. However, at the start of second period, Leslie King only had the Rovers goalkeeper to beat on a fine pass from Shannon Watson for a 1-0 Big Apple lead. Doni Jantzen leveled the score for Greenwich at 1-1 on penalty corner midway through the half and Jessica Gough pulled out the victory in the final minutes also on penalty corner, blasting a low shot through the middle much to delight of her teammates and specially her mother, Marina, who had flown in all the way from Uruguay for to see her daughter play.

Greenwich Rovers, the winners of Jeffery Grosvenor Trophy for 2007/2008 regular season top finish, had a much easier time earlier in the semifinal as they overwhelmed Malvern 7-1 thanks to 3 goals by Doni Jantzen and 2 goals by Jessica Gough. In the second semifinal Big Apple HC took the Islander ladies with equal ease 3-0, powered by 2 goals from Christine Millbauer