Northern Railway scored twice in each half to hand last year's runners-up South Central Railway a 4-1 defeat in a Pool B match between two outstation teams at the 11th PMC Bank-Guru Tegh Bahadur Gold Cup All India Hockey Tournament at the MHAL-Mahindra Stadium here today.
Later, local challengers Western Railway trounced qualifiers Union Bank of India 3-0 in a Pool A all-Mumbai round-robin league match.
Harjot Singh (6th), Harish (10th), Harsahib Singh (50th) and Manpreet Singh (55th) scored a goal each for Northern, while South Central Railway scored the lone goal through Manikantan in the 18th minute.
Penalty corner specialist Amit Rohidas (19th minute-PC), Malak Singh (52nd) and Jaykaran (64th) were the goal scorers for Western against UBI.
South Central Railway played without coordination and were unable to create chances against Northern Railway who looked better organised and scored twice within the first 10 minutes.
Harjot, with a firm reverse hit, scored the opening goal in the sixth minute before Harish doubled the lead with a rasping drive from the edge of the circle.
South Central fought back and reduced the deficit through Manikantan in the 18th minute. But they failed to sustain the momentum and could not produce many goal-scoring opportunities.
Northern kept attacking the rival citadel and got the third goal when Harsahib picked up a rebound from goalkeeper Sushant Tirkey's pads and tapped home in the 50th minute.
Five minutes later Northern scored their fourth goal from a swift counter. Following a long scoop from the defence, Harsahib relayed the ball to an overlapping Manpreet who cut past onrushing goalkeeper Tirkey and slammed home from an acute angle.
