… Ascension protest loss
THE THOMAS Lands-based Queen’s College and Freeburg Secondary recorded emphatic victories over David Rose Secondary and Ascension Secondary respectively, in replayed fixtures of this year’s Digicel-sponsored nationwide Inter-Secondary School tournament yesterday. However, Ascension raised suspicions with regard to two of the players who took the field for Freeburg and immediately after the game, lodged a protest both verbally and in writing to the officials, while one of the players in question exited the venue with haste.
Despite the protest, the action on the field, which was only made possible by the referees who waited for close to two hours before commencing the first game, left tongues wagging about the efforts of the burly Walter Roberts of Queen’s College and the never-say-die attitude displayed by David Rose.
In the first game, Freeburg made great use of their height advantage over Ascension, to register five first-half goals, with Selwyn Foster (13th, 34th) and Alex Murray – one of the challenged players – (16th, 25th) recording doubles.
This was after Sheldon Profitt had opened the scoring for his team, with a well-placed shot from the top of the box on the right hand side, in the 9th minute of the game.
Despite lodging the protest, Ascension had only themselves to blame for the loss, as they missed several goal-scoring opportunities, with Joshua Ramoutar and Shaka Graham being the chief culprits, missing easy chances, even when Freeburg custodian was out of contention to protect his team’s uprights.
Anthony Roberts placed a wonderful pass from Graham into the back of the net in the 51st minute, while Ramoutar redeemed himself nine minutes later when he sent a wonderful pass to Keon Duesbury, whose first-time shot ricocheted off a defender to nestle at the back of the goal.
In spite of several attempts to reduce their margin of losing, Ascension failed to find the back of the net after recording their first goal, even though Freeburg’s defence showed signs of tiring in the latter stages of the contest.
In the second replayed fixture, Walter Roberts got a helmet-trick for Queen’s College, who were made to produce a stern defence by David Rose, before they held on to a 5-4 win in another exciting and enthralling contest.
After seeing Stephen Rutherford rock the back of the net in the 3rd minute, Roberts, who was leading his team in their first match of the tournament, did so in the 5th, 11th, 26th and 40th minutes of play, as Queen’s College held a comfortable 4-1 lead at halftime, with Jamal John scoring his first of two goals for the losing side in the 17th minute.
Although Queen College skipper completed his helmet-trick in the second half, David Rose refused to give up and got a second wind as they scored three more goals, with John getting his second in the 55th minute, while Reshawn Hicks and Matthew McKenzie got solitary strikes in the 57th and 60th minutes respectively, with Hicks’ goal coming off a wonderfully taken free kick.