Strathmore’s super weekend ends with them at the summit
Peter Mwathi’s Strathmore University picked maximum points from their four weekend fixtures to move top of the Kenya Handball Federation (KHF) men’s Premier League and keep their hopes of clinching the elusive title alive.
Up against Thika and University of Nairobi (UoN) on Saturday as well as Buccaneers and Mt Kenya University (MKU) on Sunday, Mwathi’s charges held on to pick wins in all matches for eight points.
On Saturday, the students had an easy time against military side Thika, picking up a 37-16 win and followed it up with a 39-9 thrashing of fellow scholars UoN.
The real test for the students came on Sunday as they faced new entrants Buccaneers and MKU.
Against Buccaneers, Strathmore fought for a 33-21 win. The first half was tightly -contested but the varsity side held their own to take a 18-13 lead.
Despite facing a side with highly experienced players, Mwathi’s charges were better in the second half, dominating on all fronts to score 15 goals against Buccaneers’ eight.
“We had a slow start as we made mistakes in defence, allowing them easy goal-scoring chances. We, however, talked it over in one of the timeouts and made adjustments that worked towards the end of the first half.
The players brought out the character of the team in the second half for the win,” said coach Mwathi.
Maxwell Munene was the star of the match as he scored nine goals with Kevin Mwangi and Philip Mumo, adding four each for the win. Buccaneers’ Francis Njoroge and Winstone Chekai scored five each in the loss.
In their match against MKU, Strathmore’s Rashid Ingwela was the star as he scored six goals in a slim 20-17 win.
Strathmore had picked a five-goal lead at 12-7 in the first-half. MKU’s attempt at a comeback fell short for their 10th loss in 20 matches.
After 18 matches, Strathmore are top with 34 points, having lost just one match. Unbeaten National Cereals and Produce Board are second with 30 points from 15 wins same as Black Mamba, who made it 15 straight wins in their 32-25 triumph over UoN.
