SUNBURST Camptown and the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) booted out Buxton United and Bakewell Buxton Stars  from  the third annual Fruta Conquerors-organised, NAMILCO-sponsored football tournament with commanding victories at the Tucville ground Wednesday night.
In the first match of the evening, Sunburst Camptown routed Buxton United 4-2 thanks to a double from Rishawn Sandiford, while GDF rode heavily on a brace from Warren Gilkes to destroy any hope Bakewell Buxton Stars may have built with a 5-0 drubbing.
To add insult to injury, Bakewell Buxton Stars lost the services of their first-choice custodian Seon Griffith who suffered a broken right hand after being involved in a collision with GDF’s Desford Williams.
Camptown’s Lance Rolston opened the scoring in the 48th minute after receiving a gem of a pass from Sandiford who outsprinted his marker and crossed the ball, finding an unmarked Rolston at the top of the box in the 48th minute, after a goalless first half.
Not to be outdone, Buxton United snatched the equaliser three minutes after with the goal coming off the boot of former national Under-19 cricketer Clive Andries, following which a tight tussle ensued for supremacy among both teams.
Sandiford got his first of two goals following a fumble by Buxton’s custodian Justin Herod who failed to hold onto an intended pass, to which the Camptown forward outsprinted his marker Denver Dennis and calmly placed the ball into the back of the net in the 63rd minute.
Seven minutes later, national striker Nigel ‘Powers’ Codrington lived up to his nickname when he unleashed a powerful right-footer from midway inside Buxton’s half that caught Herod napping while Sandiford won and took a penalty in the 80th minute to place his team further ahead by the odd goal in four.
Andries, who represented Guyana at the Under-19 level in 2006 and 2007, continued to work overtime for his team at the top and like Sandiford, he earned a penalty in the 90th minute when he was brought down by Dennis before watching Keon Norville convert the kick that sealed the 4-2 victory.
The spirited effort shown by the East Coast team must have spurred on their senior counterparts when they took the field to face the GDF unit.
Gilkes signalled his team’s intention to attack from the opening whistle, when he unleashed a shot from the top of the box, only to see Griffith affect a marvellous save.
Griffith was back in the spotlight 10 minutes later when he pulled off back-to-back saves to deny both Gilkes and his skipper Marlon Benjamin, while at the other end of the field, GDF’s custodian Delon Younge emulated Griffith with two spectacular saves from within the 18-yard box.
A mix-up in communication between Griffith and his defender Bako Lewis in the 31st minute saw the ball which was crossed by Benjamin with the intentions of finding Gilkes, end up in the back of the net off Lewis’ shin.
Crestfallen by the own goal but still showing fight, Bakewell Buxton Stars who faced BV/Triumph United in last night’s quarterfinal matchup of the Mackeson Stout/Digicel Sweet 16 tournament, made several moves towards GDF’s goal area, but were met by some strong defence from Ryan Adolph, Eusi Phillips and Younge.
A hardworking Gilkes scored the first of his two goals when he was gifted with a free ball from Phillips just inside Bakewell Buxton Stars half, to which he outsprinted his two markers before placing the ball around an advancing Griffith in the 38th minute to hand GDF a 2-0 lead which they held on to at lemon time.
If football fans gathered at the venue thought they saw exciting and enthralling football in the first half, then they must have been surprised at what transpired in the second half as both teams went at each other like a pit-bull attacking a human’s throat.
Both custodians made their opposing strikers’ attacks null and void with spectacular saves and interceptions and it was from one of those that Griffith suffered his injury and was forced to exit the game.
His replacement Robert McRae a former long distance athlete proved to be no match to the GDF strike force, hence he could not stop both Hubert Pedro (77th) and Gilkes (86th) from finding the back of the net, while his teammate Randy Andrews placed one past him on behalf of GDF in the dying stages of the game.
The action will continue tonight, with the host team Fruta Conquerors taking on Seawall United from 18:00 h followed by the much anticipated clash between Alpha ‘The Hammer’ United and Milerock from 20:00 h.