Fruta Conquerors taste the ‘Drink of Champions’
FRUTA Conquerors eased past Santos Football Club by a 2-1 margin in the final of the Fruta Conquerors Football Club organized Milo Under-23 tournament last Sunday night at the Tucville Playfield. The tournament which was sponsored by Beepat’s under their Nestle Milo brand and carried the slogan ‘Milo, The Drink of Champions’, had Conquerors going home $100,000 richer while Santos walked away with the runner’s up prize of $75,000.
Earlier in the night, Guyana Police Force (GPF) team crushed Flamingo 5 – 1 in the third place showdown and claimed the $50,000 prize while the latter had to settle for the $25,000 fourth place prize.
In the individual performances category, Santos’ Colin Harris claimed the Highest Goal Scorer prize; Fruta Conquerors’ Ryan Derush was adjudged the Best Goal Keeper; Charlestown United won the Most Disciplined Team and Pernel Schultz copped the Tournament’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) award.
Conquerors’ road to the title was a quite successful one; they topped their Group with maximum points in the preliminary rounds then defeated Northern Rangers in the quarterfinals and Flamingo in the semis before winning on Sunday night.
The Conquerors/Santos match saw Conquerors dominating the first half with two goals coming off the boots of Pernel Schultz and Marco Marcus, two national youth players, who found the back of the net in the 13th and 36th minute respectively to put their team ahead going into the second half.
Santos tried to stage a recovery in the second half and managed to pull one back in the 68th minute thanks to an Edward Austin strike, but Conquerors continued to defend well and along with numerous counter attacks which forced Santos to defend most of the time, held their lead to claim the victory.