Bharath Petroleum Corporation Limited rode on a Gurpreet Singh drag flick to overcome a fighting Fortis 1-0 and keep their all-win record intact in the State Super Division hockey league at the KSHA stadium here on Tuesday.

Gurpreet sounded the board ten minutes into the second period, converting BPCL’s second penalty corner, with a clinical drag flick that beat the diving Fortis custodian Jagadish Ponnappa.

It was BPCL’s sixth consecutive win in the league while the second defeat for Fortis, who are now on 10 points.
Fortis, with former Indian skipper Dilip Tirkey in their ranks, missed two short corners in the first-half.

Tirkey found the target with the first one, but it was disallowed while the second was saved by BPCL goalkeeper Kuttappa.

BPCL attacked through Ravi Pal on the left but Fortis goalkeeper Ponnappa thrice came up with good saves in the space of four minutes to keep his team afloat. Amar Aiyamma and Gurpreet were the the ones missing out.

After the break, both teams played more swiftly, creating spaces in the defence. Infact, that cost Fortis dear as a counter from BPCL earned them a penalty corner that was powered in by Gurpreet.

Fortis could have equalised in the 52nd minute. Unfortunately for them, Bharath K K hit straight to Kuttappa in a one-on-one situation while the rebound was put wide of target by Damandeep Singh.

Other result: Army Green: 6 (S P Tirkey 15th, 48th; Anup Kullu 23rd PC; Jagdev Singh 29th PC; Souman Herenz 55th; Rajesh Kumar 58th) bt HAL: 2 (Nagasreeni 6th PC; Abhinav 63rd PC).