Mahaica Determinators send defending champions Campton packing

Turbo Knockout Football

The last of four quarterfinals in the second annual Turbo Knockout Tournament were completed on Wednesday evening with Mahaica Determinators and Georgetown Football Club (GFC) advancing to the semi-final round.
The Turbo Tournament takes on a straight knockout format, which makes for more intense competition. Nothing short of this was delivered in the last two quarter-final games on Wednesday night when Mahaica Determinators were pitted against Pouderoyen and GFC clashed later on with defending champions Campton. Both encounters had their fair share of thrills.

Mahaica Determinators and Pouderoyen took to the playing field first in a game where both parties often missed their target. As such, the already passionate battle intensified when extra time began. Here, the Mahaica Determinators became more composed, which saw to Neil Lynton netting the lone goal of the game in the 110th minute of play to eliminate their West Coast Demerara opponents.
Speaking on behalf of the fairly young Mahaica Determinators team, Kirk Roberts noted that the team lacked in some areas, but were still thankful for the victory.
“First of all, it was a hard game. We didn’t expect it to be so hard, but we gave a lot of work in training sessions and we come out here and put out that work, but the midfield was very lackadaisical in the second half. But I’m still glad in the end that we pulled off a victory,” Roberts stated.
It was as if the best was saved for last, as the second game of the night brought many spectators to their feet and as close as possible to the sidelines. La Vaughn Enniss kick-started the scoring in the 21st minute with a goal for GFC. However, the score was soon equalised when Adrian Aaron connected for Campton in the 33rd minute. The 1-1 scoreline remained for the first half and much of the second, until Jamal Cadrington put Campton in the lead in the 82nd minute. But the game was not over. With four minutes of regulation time to go, Enniss stepped up to net the equaliser for the Bourda team.
The scores remained locked for the duration of extra time, thus, leaving the battle up to a sudden death penalty shootout.
Here, the teams could not be separated, as both were accurate with their first five shots. Going again, the teams were also tied at 7-7. But the eighth goal proved to be the decider. The GFC connected beautifully, but the 2017 champs did not have the same luck, squandering their last chance of reaching the semis.
The semi-final action will go down at the Ministry of Education Ground, Carifesta Avenue. At 19:00h, Mahaica Determinators and to GFC will take the field to do battle while at 21:00h, Northern Rangers and Santos will fight for the remaining final spot.