Siaya Shines in the Initial Stages of KICOSCA Games

In the football category, Siaya County football team thrashed Meru County 4-1.

Siaya was in pool “B” of football teams that includes big names Meru, Trans-Nzoia, Tana River, and Machakos.

In the first game, Siaya thumped rival Meru 4-1 in a tension-packed thrilling game played at Booker academy grounds in Mumias.

The win saw Siaya continue with their impressive goal harvest.

In the match, Siaya took lead inside the opening 25 minutes when a long-looped ball landed squarely on Kennedy Owuor’s right leg and he did not waste the chance but shot straight at goal, scoring the opener and making it 1-0.

Several minutes later, Collins Otieno sent hundreds of Siaya fans into a frenzy with a thunderbolt shot that gave Siaya a very comfortable 2-0 lead inside the opening 35 minutes.

A series of shots on target attempts followed as Siaya dominated majority of the opening half before the team went to half time with Siaya leading 3-0.

In the final half Samwel Sanjro put the icing on the cake with a beautiful drink over helpless Meru Goalkeeper for a 4-1 win.

In a thrilling handball men encounter pitying Siaya versus Embu ended with Siaya thrashing Embu 13-4 while in handball women category, Siaya qualified for the quarter stage after beating Uasin Gishu 12-3.

According to Handball captain Pauline Owegi, “We are going for the quarters with Meru County and we expect to get to the final and get back home with the trophy.”

Owegi attributed the great performance to consistency in training and a vibrant team spirit.

Last year, Siaya was dislodged at the semis in Meru County but this time the team has displayed a lethal edge that could see them emerge victorious.

In netball, the romping Siaya thrashed Kisii and Meru 15-14 and 27-11 respectively.

Captain Hellen Atieno says they don’t doubt their victory.

“We are here for business and will definitely lift the trophy,” said Atieno.

In the volleyball lady’s category, Siaya ladies started on the wrong footing after a humiliating defeat in their game with Uasin Gishu who beat Nairobi and Kisumu 3-0 respectively to lift the trophy.

Uasin Gishu sealed a 24-12, 25-7 and 25-7 set piece.

Referee Wafula Edward said Uasin Gishu gave a blistering start with an agile 6 foot 5 inch player involved in every rally on both defence at the net and in attack.

“Even though, Siaya has been defeated but they are a disciplined team. Uasin Gishu is higher than Siaya in terms of scores and coordination,” said Wafula.

Handball ladies Captain Sharon Olang accepted defeat saying they were in a pool with defending champions.

“Although we had adequate training and were prepared for this game the pool itself had an intimidating effect on us,” said Olang, adding “the pool was full of staff who have been athletes at the international level”.

However, the second handball game between Siaya and Bungoma failed to kick off after the parties failed to agree at the documents verification stage.The parties halted their game and resorted to proceed to huduma center for further verification.

Handball coordinator Lukas Ragen said he thought the teams would reason and go by the staffs tag and ghris verification here in the field but it seemed things were not working so they resolved to go the huduma way.

The idea for Huduma verification was equally endorsed by KICOSCA chairman John Ang’awa saying that’s is the safest way to deal with such disagreements. The system resolves an impasse arising from the other team suspecting that rival players are non-county staff and professionals hired to give opponents an edge.

“Even Nairobi County were suspicious with Homa-bay team and it’s the huduma verification that helped put things straight.”