First weekend of games are over

September 5, 2021

First weekend of games are over

Today there was five games scheduled in Baltic Handball league. First game in season 2021/2022 played also last season’s champions HC Dragunas Klaipeda. In four of five today’s games victory got Lithuanian teams, but in one Estonians. After this weekend Granitas/Karys and Põlva Serviti and as well as Varsa – Stronglasas Alytus got the maximum – two wins in two games.

14:00     Rassiku/Mistra – HC Dragunas Klaipeda                 21:31 (8:13)
Yesterday Rassiku played with last season’s Latvian champions – ZRHK Tenax Dobele, today they had a game with one more champion’s team – last season’s BHL winners – HC Dragunas Klaiped. Both teams started with goals scored one by one, after 7 min., game result was 4:4. HC Dragunas managed to score two goals in a row, while playing in minority, because of 2-minute suspension. Both teams missed a lot of shots and the result was growing slowly – 7:10 after 25 minutes played. In last five minute of first period HC Dragunas scored three against Rassiku one goal and secured a safe lead before the break – 8:13. In second half HC Dragunas confirmed their Champion title on court and convincingly won the game – 21:31.

Gintaras Cibulskis, coach of HC Dragunas Klaipeda
“Today we won by 10 points. It is good, but we still did not play our best game, we had a lots of mistakes. But I am happy, it is my first official victory as a head coach of team. I am happy that they fought till the end, before the game I said, that we have to win minimum by 10 points, I think that kept team motivated. But as I said we have a lot to do – practice, practice, practice. About the opponents, we played with them first time, and it is a good team. But now we are going home happy and getting ready for next games.”

Best scorers:
Rassiku/Mistra – Nerut 6, Slastinovski 4, Sokorovich 4, Naumenko 2, Kesskula 2, Anton 1, Annula 1, Padjus 1
HC Dragunas Klaipeda   – Juskenas 9, Palskys 6, Simonavicius 5, Hlushak 3, Lapiniauskas 2, Naghavialhosseini 2, Biknius 2, Plakhotin 2, Butkus 1

14:00     Granitas/Karys Kaunas – SK Latgols Ludza           39:22 (19:11)
Today was no changes in SK Latgols roster, they had only 10 players (because of Covid restrictions, many players couldn’t participate). Despite the roster problem, SK Latgols fought hard and one of team’s best scorer Normunds Seņkāns with 3 goals in 6 minutes kept the teams in game – 4:3 after 4 minutes of game. After that Granitas scored four goals in a row – 10:5. In next 11 minutes SK Latgols managed to score only one goal and let team from Kaunas run away – 14:6. At the end of first half teams played a draw – 5:5, but the halftime result was – 19:11. The second half did not bring any changes. Granitas/Karys produced a strong second half and didn’t give to SK Latgols any chances. Game result – 39:22. For Granitas/Karys this was second win in this weekend, but SK Latgols second lost game in two days.

Karolis Dambrauskas, Player of Granitas/Karys
“We are very happy about our game today. The Latvian team came with a short roster of players; they did not have many players today here. It is seen in result. But we won, that is the most important thing. Now we are looking forward for next games.”

Andrejs Narņickis, Coach of SK Latgols
“One thing is that were short in roster. But without that, we played very bad in defense. We let the opponents score too many goals. We also had too many mistakes and in two positions no players. Team also did not do the tasks I said before the game. Well, it was tough weekend. But we hope soon it will get better.”

Best scorers:
Granitas/Karys Kaunas – Feoktistovas 6, Kairys 6, Šarkauskas 5, Zeringis 5, Pijus 5, Giedraitis 4, Jurkevičius 3, Monvilas 2, Tomkevičius 1, Lazauskas 1, Vilutis 1
SK Latgols Ludza – Malahovs 7, Seņkāns 5, Rancāns 3, Kodaļevs 3, Matvejenko 3, Strazds 1

14:00     VHC Šviesa Vilnius – Põlva Serviti              23:29 (13:17)
Both teams won yesterday – VHC Šviesa against HC Kehra and Põlva Serviti against HC Vilnius, so teams were fighting for another two points in their pocket. Until the games 19th minute game was going point by point, without any team’s big lead. But Põlva Serviti managed to score 3 goals in a row and that allowed them extend the gap to 10:14. Also in this game the end of first half was played draw – 3:3 and the result before the break was 13:17. In second half biggest lead for Põlva Serviti was 8 goals, but at the end they let VHC Šviesa a little bit closer – 23:29.

Žygimantas Sinkevicius, Coach of VHC Šviesa
“The match was tough. Yesterday we gave up a lot of power. Polva is a very strong and fast team. We need to continue to improve our game and to move forward.”

Best scorers:
VHC Šviesa Vilnius – Švilpa 5, Pukas 4, Bernatavičius 4, Sinkevičius 3, Pleta 3, Drabavičius 2, Ramunis 1, Palevčius 1
Põlva Serviti – Hilend 5, Chezlov 5, Kase 5, Varul 4, Sillaste 4,Sarapuu 3, Pihus 2, Rebane 1

14:30     Varsa – Stronglasas Alytus – HK Ogre     43:36 (19:21)
After yesterday’s loss HK Ogre seemed to have a little bit of anger, they started very good and effectively. But they were only with six field players and one goalkeeper today. In first 16 minutes three of HK Ogre players were scored 4 goals – Lazdiņš, Leja and Patsykailik. If the first minutes were similar and both teams scored goals one after another. Then after that HK Ogre got some small lead 18:14. Varsa – Stronglasas tried to close the gap and they succeeded. First half – 19:21. In second half teams scored an unusually high number of goals for handball – 43:36.

Tadas Stankevičius, Varsa – Stronglasas Alytus
“We had two different half of game. First half was really bad for our team, we were sleepy and we started pretty slow. We made a lot of mistakes and played very bad in defense. Second half was much better, we played patiently and also our goalkeeper helped as with few saves. Thank to Ogre team, even they had only few players they fought very well.”

Natālijas Kudrjavceva, coach of HK Ogre
“I think it was nice game from our side. We came only with six field players. I think Varsa got the win with a help from referees. That is the point of this game.”

Best scorers:
Varsa – Stronglasas Alytus – Babarskas 8, Stankevicius 6, Petrušauskas 6, Lastauskas 5, Adamkevičius 5, Micevičius 5, Tumasonis 4, Eidukonis 3, Grebliūnas 1.
HK Ogre – Patsykailik 10, Leja 9, Haisa 9, Lazdiņš 5, Čikuts 3

15:00     HC Vilnius – HC Kehra/Horizon Pulp&Paper        29:22 (17:12)

Mindaugas Urbonas, HC Vilnius
“It was a great match. We rotated a lot of players, so we didn’t get tired, which was our problem yesterday. The most important thing is a positive result. We played well in defense. This is a start of the season and we all hope to improve. Everybody will get stronger, we will play more competitions and I think the season will be good.”

Mart Raudsepp, Coach of KC Kehra
“Today we were not so fresh and could not stop Vilnius attack. Vilnius is good team with good shooters and line player, our boys had trouble stopping the MEN :). Overall good thing is our young boys got experience and playing time (two 15-year-old boys).”

Best scorers
HC Vilnius – Urbonas 6, Drevinskas 5, Markaitis 4, Žala 4, Milaknis 3, Lapinskas 2, Valiušis 2, Skobas 1, Petronis 1, Raudonius 1
HC Kehra/Horizon Pulp&Paper – Yankovski 8, Benström 3, Seermann 3, Normak I. 2, Normak S. 1, Luks 1, Vilks 1, Guimanov 1, Barouski 1, Parm 1