The crowd enlarged and so did the level of intensity which corresponded in a plethora of goals on Saturday’s final night of the round-of-sixteen action in the Corona Futsal Tournament held at the National Gymnasium.
Some of the big names heading into quarter-finals are Tiger Bay, West Front Road- Gold is Money, Sparta Boss and Leopold Street.
West Front Road’s Randolph Wagner and Alexander Village’s Shem Porter in a battle for possession
Led by Deon Alfred with a helmet-trick (8th, 11th, 12th & 18th), Tiger Bay easily disposed of Xtreme Campbellville 8-1. Supporting Alfred were Orin Moore (13th), Jermaine Beckles (16th), Kerwin Heywood (16th) and Jason Meredith (18th); Carl Griffith had given the Campbellville unit the lead in the 6th.
For West Front Road, the brothers did the damage as Jamal Pedro breezed to a hat-trick via goals in the 8th, 14th and 20th. Next was Randolph Wagner (2nd & 5th) while Michael (10th) and Hubert Pedro (12th) along with Colin Nelson (20th) etched their names on the score sheet against Alexander Village who could only respond with Shem Porter (16th) and Leon Yaw (17th).
Leopold Street and Showstoppers started off looking very promising with both sides trading goal for goal, rousing the fans in attendance. However, the West Demerara unit Showstoppers were overpowered in the physical battle.
The man who inflicted the misery upon Showstoppers was Eon Alleyene with five goals (1st, 6th, 12th, 13th & 18th) while Omalo Williams (14th & 19th) and Daren Benjamin (2nd) added the other goals. For the West Demerara side Dexroy Adams (3rd & 5th) and Trayon Bobb (8th & 11th) led the early response.
Defending champions Sparta strolled into next phase by hammering Albouystown 5-1. After Moses Gittens placed the defeated ahead in the 3rd minute, it was all Sparta with Courtney Britton (6th), Keyon Richards (9th), Gregory Richardson (12th), Quincy Adams (13th) and Sheldon Shepherd (18th) making it a team contribution.
The quarter-finals will be contested on Saturday where Tiger Bay opposes Bent Street from 20:30h, West Front and Leopold from 21:45h, Alpha Warriors collide with California Square from 22:30h and the final match being Future Stars and Sparta from 23:15h.
At stake in the tournament which is a collaboration with NAMILCO Wheat Gem, is the winning purse of $600,000 and the championship trophy. Second to fourth will take home $300,000, $150,000 and $75,000 along with the corresponding accolades.
The sweet of the pudding comes in form of two Hero motor cycles which will be awarded to the Most Valuable Player (MVP) and the other to a lucky spectator at the Easter Weekend final.
