Close call for Black Mamba in victory over Buccaneers

Martin Nguli and Sydney Omondi bagged five and four goals each to help Kenya Handball Federation (KHF) men's league side Black Mamba to victory over Buccaneers in a closely contested match. 

The two sides exchanged leads numerous times in the match and were tied on more, including at ten goal at half time, but it was Mamba who were lucky in the end as they won the encounter 20-19 for a third victory of the league. 

"We lost to Buccaneers last season so all through Sunday's match, that was at the back of our minds and we did not want to lose again. It was a tough match, a few lapses in concentration and we found ourselves trailing by three goals with ten minutes to play. 

Winning start for Ulinzi and GSU in men's Handball league

We had to re-adjust and organise ourselves for a better attack. We had lost about five chances that went straight to the keeper and something had to give.

This is the second win of the season and we are hoping to build on that momentum going forward," offered Mamba's Paul Ondara who scored the winning goal for Mamba. 

Brandon Juma managed four goals for Buccaneers with Levis Otunge, Stower Radzi and Isaac Fortune contributing three goals each but it still was not enough to pick a win in the crucial fixture. 

"We were leading by two goals up to the 55th minute. Defensively we were solid but the last five minutes we lost concentration in both attack and defense.

We could attribute this to lack of technical support as our officials were absent with apology and we had to run the bench. We fought to the end with the winning score came from 7 meter throw as the final play of the game. 

It was not the result we wanted. We had hoped for a positive outcome due to adequate preparation we had for the game. We take the loss positively and hope to correct come next game as we build in this momentum," offered Buccaneers' skipper Franicks Njoroge. 

In another closely contested encounter, Ulinzi HC escaped defeat by a whisker as they played for a 34-33 victory against Technical University of Kenya (TUK). 

Gideon Mulwa and Kelvin Imo led the soldiers' attack with 12 and nine goals respectively. Brian Werengai scored 11 for the students who are yet to register their first victory. 

"We started well, played a good game but our bench power became our main undoing as the match went on. We also lost a bit of concentration in the last minutes of the match and that cost us what would have been a crucial victory. 

We will, however, regroup and correct on our mistakes as we head tk the next match where we hope to have our technical bench available to run things as that affected us in the Ulinzi match," offered Werengai.