Charlestown, Bishops’ take first two quarterfinal spots
Milo Schools Football Tournament
Charlestown Secondary and the Bishops’ High School are the first two schools to make it into the quarterfinals of the 2019 Milo Schools’ Football tournament after two scintillating games on Saturday.
A glimpse of the intense battle between Charlestown and Golden Grove
Playing at the Ministry of Education’ s Ground on Carifesta Avenue in Georgetown, the four teams scheduled for the day’s games were sure to take a stance against gender-based violence as part of the tournament’s collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health’s ‘Stop Gender Based Violence’ campaign.
Formalities over, the players took to the field to battle it out for their spot in next weekend’s quarterfinals.
Charlestown and Golden Grove were the first two teams to take to the field on Saturday afternoon, under brilliant sunshine. What was going to being an intense encounter showed early, as both teams employed aggressive tactics.
A series of back and forth plays resulted in Simon Jones of Golden Grove netting the first goal of the game in the 15th. Frustrated by Golden Grove’s early advantage, Charlestown became hungrier for praise, controlling most of the ball possession. However, the Georgetown team was unable to finish their plays, often missing the goal by inches. Golden Grove, while focusing on their defense, also hunted the goal avidly; but luck was on their side as offside and other issues prevented them from registering more goals. The first half eventually expired with the score at 1-0.
Charlestown returned in the second with more grit than ever, and it proved fruitful, as the team staged a come-from-behind upset of a very confident Golden Grove. Tariq Pryce, emerged from a cluster of defenders to volley in the equaliser into the goal in the 77th minute. Charlestown were not done yet: Raymond Bandhu returned three minutes later to ease another goal in to take the lead.
Despite putting up a fight in the final minutes of the encounter, Golden Grove were unable to sink another goal, and Guyana to accept the 2-1 defeat.
Cummings Lodge and the Bishops’ High School faced off in in a high-scoring thriller which was the second and final game of the day.
Romeo Bradford was the first to find the back of the net in the 11th minute, to give Bishops’ the lead. Six minutes later, his teammate Malachi Richards connected for the second goal.
Cummings Lodge upped their pursuit of a goal, and came close in some instances, but did not have what it took to finish.
Romeo Bradford returned in the 32nd to strike his second goal, thus pushing the score to 3-0 by the half.
The break at the half seemingly did well for Cummings Lodge, as they returned with a more composed game plan. They were eventually rewarded in the 51st when Christian Harris pierced the goal for their first. Minutes later, Antone Herod extended Bishops’ lead with a clean strike into the goal.
Bishops’ maintained a strong defence until Simon Ifill dribbled his way past the BHS defenders to seal Cummings Lodge’s second goal in the 80th. However, his brilliance did not go unmatched, as Malachi Richards sought revenge with his second goal in the 80th to seal Bishops’ 5-2 win.
The Milo round of sixteen will continue tomorrow at the same venue with four more exhilarating matchups.
