… wins for Lodge and Bygeval Secondary
By Calvin Roberts
IF EVER New Campbellville Secondary School (NCSS) go on to win the Georgetown title when they face Lodge Secondary School in the final at the Carifesta Sports Complex ground tomorrow, they have one person to say a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to – their custodian Amanacke Forde. The pint-size Forde churned out an exemplary performance between his team’s uprights at the Georgetown Football Club (GFC) ground yesterday, enabling them to defeat the more illustrious Guyana Industrial Training Centre (GITC) 4-2 on penalty kicks in their semifinal matchup.
At the Carifesta Sports Complex ground, Lodge Secondary, who were given a reprieve after winning a protest, continue to say thanks with their convincing 3-1 victory over St George’s Secondary, who themselves won a protest over Queen’s College.
At the Beterverwagting Community Centre ground, Bygeval Secondary were crowned the champions of Region Four, when they defeated Annandale Secondary 3-1, to book a place in the national playoffs, which get under way sometime next week.
However, at the GFC ground, an enthralling and exciting encounter whetted the appetites of those gathered at the venue, including national Under-17 coach Sampson Gilbert and national forward Andrew Murray Jr.
An even tussle for supremacy occurred during the first 10 minutes of the contest, but as the players adjusted to the footing underground – having played several preliminary-round matches in soggy and slightly damp conditions before – technical plays were the order of the day.
There was no doubt in persons’ mind, that NCSS were looking to their devastating forward Shamar Barrow to lead their attack, while their opponents were banking on the efforts of Akeem Holder and Tyshawn Forris to do the same.
Barrow sent several shots to GITC’s goal area, but they were wide of the mark and after seeing his free kick that was taken from the top of the box being saved by GITC’s Mario King, he worked his way into the penalty area and was brought down by Shaquille Hughes, forcing referee Harry Griffith to point to the spot.
Forde was called upon to take the spot kick for his team and he calmly placed the ball to the right of King, in the 44th minute, to give his team a 1-0 lead at lemon-time.
When play resumed in the second half, GITC were all over their opponents, taking advantage of the wind on their backs and following several raids on their opponents’ goal area which forced Forde to affect numerous saves, Holder latched onto a loose ball and outran the defence, before lobbing same over Forde’s head to nullify NCSS’s lead, in the 55th minute.
As both sides went in search of the go-ahead goal, they were met by stern defence, with Hughes, Bevon Semple, Deon Rogers and Luis Downer standing firm for GITC, while Akeel Pimbero, Shamar Mingo, Shamar Fraser, Daniel Ross and Stephan Vandyke did the same for NCSS.
It came down to penalty kicks and after finding the back of the net on the second occasion, when Griffith disallowed Mingo’s first attempt save, Forde in true Iker Casillas fashion, blocked two of GITC players’ shot to hand his team the win.
Skipper Keith Fletcher led from the front for Lodge Secondary, scoring a hat-trick of goals in the 28th, 52nd and 57th minutes respectively, as they defeated St George’s Secondary 3-1, with Ozama Small finding the back of the net in the 11th minute for the losing side.
At BV, Janson Jack (4th), Kelvin James (45th) and Samuel Charles, 90th, were the players responsible for Bygeval Secondary’s goals in their 3-1 victory over Annandale Secondary, for whom Dimitri Clarke scored a consolation goal in the 37th minute.