Sabitra Bhandari struck eight goals alone as Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) Club showered Eastern Region with 15 goals against nil during their Women’s National League here on Tuesday.

Apart from Bhandari, Sajana Rana also completed a hat-trick for the departmental team in the super league stage held at the Anfa complex in Satdobato. Laxmi Paudel also joined in the goal feast with a double, while Anu Lama and Anita Basnet completed the rout of Eastern Region.

Bhandari opened the floodgates for APF early in the eighth minute before adding more goals in the 44th, 60th, 64th, 67th, 69th, 81th and 85th. Rana joined in with her goals in the 20th, 43rd and 90th. In between Paudel struck in the 28th and 61st minute. Lama scored her goal in the 26th minute, eight minutes after Basnet found the nets.

Nar Kumar Rai, the APF coach, concluded that he found out Eastern Region a lot easier opponents than he had anticipated. “This win will set the tone for our remaining games,” said Rai adding that their real test will be against the two other departmental teams: Nepal Police Club and Tribhuvan Army Club.

Eastern Region coach Bhagawati Rana Magar singled out poor goalkeeping for their heavy defeat. “We had high hopes considering out outings in the first round matches. But we were let down by our goalkeeper,” said Rana Magar. “We will try to bounce back in our remaining two matches.”