Story and photos by Jemima Holmes
Football fans were treated to two exhilarating encounters on Sunday evening as the first half of the Limacol Football tournament’s quarterfinal stage. When the dust settled, Santos FC Under 20 and Pele Fc sealed their appearance in the semifinal.
Santos FC Under 20 pulled of an entertaining come from behind win in the first fixture of the night, to crush Buxton Stars semifinal dreams.
Out if the East Coast outfit, Jumali Major was the first player to find the back of the net in the 8th. Santos’ Orin Moore equalized in the 17th. In the 34th, Shemar McPherson pushed the scores to 2-1 in Buxton’s favour but Jermine Padmore levelled the scores three minutes later.
For a third time that night, Buxton took the lead in the 75th by way of Major’s second goal but Santos Under 20 went into over drive, to ensure that Buxton could not equalize again. Rondel Peters added the third in the 82nd, followed by a brace from Raymond Bandhu in the 84th and 90th. Marcus Wilson placed the cherry on top with one last goal for Santos’ 6-3 victory.
Raymond Bandhu, who put the game out of Buxton Star’s spoke with this newscast about his contribution to the crucial win.
“My contribution was something good towards the team cause at a point in time, we thought we were done after the penalty was scored on us. And then the captain himself said, we have much time we can do this, so I decided to lift my game and lift the team as well,” he explained.
“Well after we found ourselves down, we decided to lift our game and start play pressure football, it’s either we win or we lose and we came out successful,” Bandhu went on to say.
Meanwhile, Captain Marcus Wilson, highlighted focus as one of the key areas that the team needs to work on going into the semifinal.
“Most of the players just getting carried away when the coach talk to them; their minds are going far away from the game. So from training we know we got to focus and we got to try to keep the ball more. They’re getting carried away from the crowd and when the coach talk they’re getting vexed, so we have to correct that for the semifinal and stick to our plan,” Wilson highlighted.
The second game of the evening was another nail biting one as Pele Fc and GT Panthers matched strides and goals.
Daniel Gibson netted the first goal in the 17th and Dorwin George found the back of the net in the 46th to give Pele a 2-0 advantage. However, just when it seemed as though Pele would take the game easily, Sherrol Daniels and Leon Roberts out foxed the goal keeper in the 84th and 91st for a 2-2 game at the end of regulation time.
Extra time came and went without a deciding goal, leaving the game’s result up to the penalty shootout. There, Pele FC proved to be the more accurate team, connecting 4 penalties for the victory.
Pele will face Santos in the semifinal on Saturday October 5. Meanwhile Riddim Squad will take on Mahaica Determinators and Fruta Conquerors Under 20 will face off with Timehri Panthers in the other two quarterfinal games tomorrow evening.
The New GPC sponsored tournament is supported by WJ Enterprise, who are the sole distributors of Croxley Papers. The winners of this year’s tournament will receive $400,000 while second place pockets $200,000. Third and fourth place will walk away with $100,000 and $50,000 respectively.
