Sri Lanka Navy, OTSC and SSC clubs registered victories in week 01 for the SLWP League Championship which was played on the 5th July at Welisara Navy and Royal College Swimming Pools.
OTSC vs RCUAC
OTSC vs RCUAC was the crunch game of the first week as arch rivals played each other in the 3rd game of the 1st week under lights at the Royal Swimming Pool.
OTSC were led by National Captain Dhanushka Seram and also included 2010 and 2013 Hayman winning captains and National players Chanuka ‘Baca’ Perera and Devushan De Mel along with Hungarian Player Adam Zoltan and the Current STC Water Polo team. RCUAC was inclusive of the Current Royal side led by Akila Weerasinghe.
OTSC drew first blood through Sachithra Jayathilaka and extended their lead by a goal from Ashane Fransis in the first quarter. But Royal Captain Akila struck one for Royal reducing the OTSC lead to 2-1 at the end of the 1st quarter.
OTSC then scored 2 more goals in the 2nd quarter through Devushan and Chanuka and kept RCUAC goalless in the 2nd quarter and OTSC were 4-1 at the half time.
The 3rd quarter was a highly contested quarter as both teams scored 2 goals each. OTSC scored through Aqueel Soujah and Keshan Munasinghe and Yashodha Wasalage scored both for Royal. Scores were 6-3 at half time.
OTSC managed to take the game away from Royal and sealed the nail in the coffin in the final quarter by scoring 2 more goals by Aqueel Soujah and making it a hat-trick of goals for Soujah and OTSC also once again managed to keep goalless.
Both teams can take a lot of positives from this game as OTSC would be happy of their victory against Royal and RCUAC would be looking to fine tune their game going in to the week 02 of the league. The young RCUAC side would also be happy to keep the Hugarian Adam Zoltan quite during the entire game.
OTSC won the game 08 – 03
SSC vs ACAC
The 1st game of this year’s league Championship was held at the Welisara Navy Pool on the 5th of July.
The Ananda College Aquatic Club which comprises of the current Ananda Water Polo team faced off against a high profile SSC side which includes former STC Captains Dharith De Silva, Dinuk Wijewardena, Former STC goal keeper Sahan Jayawardena and few more former Royal and STC players.
The Young ACAC played extremely well to pull off an upset by beating the SSC side 08-06.
Dinuk Wijewardena started to tick the score board by scoring 1st early in the game but ACAC cut short the OTSC lead with 2 goals in the 1st quarter by National Youth Player Oshada Madushka and Malinka Jayasekara. But SSC hit back with a goal from Darith De Silva to make the score 2-all at the end of the 1st quarter.
ACAC then managed to take away the game completely from SSC by scoring 5 goals in the 2nd and the 3rd quarters and gave away only 1 goal to SSC. Asela Karannagoda scored one goal for ACAC while Malinka Jayasekara and Danushka Hansaka scored 2 goals each. Darith De Silva scored the solitary goal for SSC in the 2nd quarter and ACAC held off SSC for a goalless 3rd quarter.
SSC then came back strong in the final quarter by scoring 3 goals and gave away only 1 to ACAC but it was too late to pull back a victory as ACAC had already taken a comfortable lead at the end of the 3rd quarter. Dinuk Wijewardena scored 2 in the final quarter and Darith De Silva scored one again in the final quarter thus making a hat-trick of goals for both former STC Captains Darith and Dinuk.
SLN vs ONASC
The 2nd game of this year’s league Championship was held at the Welisara Navy Pool on the 5th of July.
The match between SLN and ONASC was a mismatch as SLN ran riots on ONASC. SLN was led by National vice-captain Yahan Samarajeewa and was a full house of national players. ONASC was of this year’s Nalanda team.
SLN scored at regular intervals and held on a very tight defense. For Sri Lanka Navy Shehan Dassanayake was the Star Performer with 9 goals while Shan Lakshitha and Yahan Samarajeewa scored 4 goals each. Musharraf Uwais scored 3 for Navy while Poorna Kankanige, Savith Warnapura, Bhanuka Wijesundara, Thisura Thamanegama and Akila Watareka chipped in with a goal each.
For ONASC Pavithra Perera and Vineth Ginathilake scored a goal each.
SLN won the game 25-02 recording the biggest win in terms of goals and goals difference in the year’s league so far.
SLWP league week 02 matches will commence from the week beginning Monday, 7th July. The SLWP League Championship is organized by Sri Lanka Water Polo and Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union.
