OVERALL winners of this year’s Scotiabank/Pepsi Football Academy, Charlestown Secondary School, yesterday displayed their superiority over Mercy Wings, for whom they had no

mercy, coming away with a tense 2-1 victory at the Ministry of Education ground, as action in this year’s Digicel Schools Football Championships continued around the country.
In other matches, Orealla, Christ Church, Ann’s Grove, Diamond and Ash Education Trust (AET), all recorded victories over their respective opponents on a day which saw Princeton fail to make an appearance for their contest against Bishops’ High School, at Eve Leary.
Charlestown started their encounter against Mercy Wings in a brisk manner, attacking their opponents’ goal area within the first 10 minutes, but were met by a sturdy Omar Jones, whose performance between the uprights for his team left many tongues wagging.
In fact, his heroics throughout the encounter, especially in the second half where he refused to take the substitute’s bench, despite suffering an injury to his shoulder, denied Charlestown on numerous occasions and also ensured that his team stayed in the hunt for glory.
Even though he displays a pint-size body structure, Jones was not afraid to challenge Charlestown’s forwards in the air for any ball, coming out on top 95% of the time even with an injured shoulder and it took a 21st minute penalty kick from Shane Marks, to hand Charlestown the lead.
On the other end of the field, Delroy Holligan was a thorn in the side of Charlestown defence and during one of his numerous raids, he eluded a tense-looking Baron Dick, eased his way past an advancing Marvin Carter and calmly placed the ball into an open goal to hand Mercy Wings the long awaited equaliser in the 40th minute.
In the second half, both teams sought to gain the advantage with Holligan, Raphael Edwards and Kareem Johnson working overtime to find Mercy Wings’ second goal while Omari James, Anthony Bartholomew, Josiah Charles, Shane Morris and Collis Best emulated them for Charlestown.
The eventual victors lost the services of Best, who was ejected from the game for a dangerous play on Jones in the 64th minute, but his exit only boosted his teammates as they continued to attack their opponents’ goal area relentlessly.
Two well directed headers from James was clutched safely by Jones, who also pulled off a miraculous save from Bartholomew when faced with a one-on-one situation, before James beat him to his left with a well-placed shot in the 78th minute, to give Charlestown the go-ahead and what turned out to be, the winning goal.
At Skeldon, Evan Herman had a double hat-trick as Orealla Secondary humiliated Lower Corentyne 13-0, finding the back of the net in the 5th, 13th, 35th, 41st, 44th and 46th minutes of play.
He got support from Kelvin Duke who scored a brace in the 2nd and 82nd minutes, while B. Rajnarine (18th), Jermain Bizwayne (24th), Cameron Edwards (61st) and an own goal, accounted for the other seven goals in Lower Corentyne’s demise.
Jovanty Best scored a brace in the 51st and 63rd minutes for Christ Church, who advanced with a comfortable 4-0 victory over Cummins Lodge at the Camptown Football Club ground, as Travis Fitzpatrick (65th) and Carlton Harris (69th) offered support to Best.
At Ann’s Grove, the home team defeated Golden Grove 3-1, thanks to solitary strikes from Paul Collins (22nd), Verrel Pellew (30th) and Shemroy Joseph (77th), with Lloyd Witherspoon scoring the lone goal for the hapless Golden Grove unit, in the 32nd minute of play.
Diamond Secondary emulated Orealla by keeping a clean sheet, as they came away with an 11-0 victory over Xenon Academy, thanks to Nikolai Matthews’ helmet-trick scored in the 35th, 50th, 67th and 78th minutes of play respectively.
Seon Alfred also notched in a hat-trick, doing so in the 20th, 70th and 75th minutes while J. Somwaru, Shelton Joe and Denzil Crawford had solitary strikes in the 30th, 53rd and 89th minutes of play.
At the Number 5 ground in West Berbice, Jamal Angus got a brace in the 4th and 59th minutes of play which together with Akeemo Watts and Kevin Layne’s solitary strikes in the 35th and 54th minutes respectively, handed AET a 4-2 victory over Bush Lot Secondary, who got a double from Tevin McKenzie in the 21st and 82nd minutes.