TP Mazembe from DR Congo was on fire hitting Telcom from Djibouti 8-0 in the second match of this year’s Cecafa Club Championship staged in Kigali Sunday night.

The African champions were marched foot to foot by the Horn of Africa side in the opening quarter hour before shifting gears for what could end up being the highest score margin in the two-week tournament staged in front of some 10,000 fans at the Amahoro Stadium.

Chilslain Mvete scored a hat-trick and was subsequently named the man of the match by the Cecafa technical team. He was on target on the 17^th, 33^rd and 56^th minutes. Last year’s tournament’s man of the Tournament, Tresor Mputu Mabi came in for Sabastian Mwanda in the last 20 minutes and was on target in the 70^th and 84^th minutes.

Deo Kadae, Patou Kabangu and Alain Kaluyituka completed the Telcom rout in the 60^th, 61^st and 90^th minutes respectively.

Although the score-line looks harsh against the Djibouti side, they had their fine moments that caused major scares on the Mazembe bench.

Their best chance came in the 24^th minute when Daher Ahmed beat the Congolese defence on the centre line, sprinted clear to face Robert Kidiaba in goal but went inches wide.

Mazembe are playing in the tournament as guests, using it as part of their training for the quarter final stage of the African Champions’ League.

They are placed with Telcom, APR from Rwanda and Vital’O from Burundi in Group A.

APR kicked off their campaign on a sound note beating Vital’O 2-1 in the tournament’s opening match on Saturday night. The match was watched by among others President Paul Kagame who is also the Cecafa patron.

Action in Group B kicked off Sunday with favourites St. George from Ethiopia and Rayon Sports of Rwanda playing to a 2-2 draw also at the Amahoro Stadium.

St. George returning to big time football following a two-year Fifa ban of their country scored two penalties through Salahadin Said in the seventh and 62^nd minutes.

Rayon was buoyed by goals from Sina Jerome and Franck Makengo in the 22^nd and 47^th minutes respectively.

St. George’s Jean Claude Amougo was the Man of the Match.

The group has only three teams, the other one being Zanzibar’s Mafunzo. Heartland of Nigeria who were initially placed in this group had to be removed from the fixtures in the last minute after withdrawing to concentrate on their domestic league.

Group C has defending champions Atraco from Rwanda, Uganda Revenue Authority, Sofapaka from Kenya and Simba C from Tanzania.

Following the absence of Heartland, the tournament’s fixtures have been revised for the final to be played on May 29^th instead of 30^th.

Meanwhile, two referees Thomas Onyango (Kenya) and Ally Kalyango (Uganda) have been shipped in to take the places of Eric Gasinzirwa (Burundi) and Israel Mujuni (Tanzania) both who failed the mandatory fitness (Cooper) test.

Onyango and Kalyango both passed their tests and will be in action hopefully from Tuesday.