It isn’t often that you would witness the ice broken and immediately after the gridlock is set in place again, but that was the reality on Saturday afternoon when St. Pius Primary and Enterprise Primary put on a thriller of a final to decide who would emerge champions of the Courts’ Pee-Wee Under-11 Football tournament.
The two powerhouse teams went bang for bang, and it was only the first half, leaving the parents and supporters proverbially salivating at the prospect of more action from the next generation of Guyana’s best ballers.
In the 13th minute of the final showdown, Carlon Robinson struck the ball to the back of the net to put St. Pius Primary in the lead.
When the ball was set in the middle again, almost instantaneously Jashan Haynes took a shot at the goal, and connected in the top corner.
The once exuberant St. Pius were now as quiet as a mouse, while Enterprise took their turn to revel.
Following words of inspiration from two of Guyana’s national players, Jeremy Garrett and Marcus Wilson, the young ballers returned with fresh enthusiasm and determination.
Aaron Vasconcellos of St. Pius was visibly having an off-day on the field, yet the youngster kept firing shot after shot, giving the eventual ‘best goalkeeper’ lots of work to do.
However, the man who eventually found the winning goal was on the opposing side. Jashan Haynes returned in the 30th and, capitalizing on a freekick opportunity, went straight for goal, much to the pleasure of the Enterprise supports, who erupted in ecstatic cheers for a second time.
Favour was not on the St. Pius side, as chance after chance went awry, resulting in a 2-1 victory for Enterprise.
In the third-place playoff, North Georgetown outplayed Marian Academy to lift the trophy after a 3-1 affair.
Marian Academy drew first blood by way of a penalty kick, which was taken by Nayal George in the 13th. Another penalty opportunity, this time going the way of North Georgetown, was responsible for levelling the scores in the 32nd. The shot was aced by Nathan Peters.
