South Ruimveldt Secondary and St John’s drub opponents
… Three players hammer home helmet-tricks

BOTH South Ruimveldt Secondary and St John’s Secondary inflicted humiliating defeats on their respective opponents, when first-round action in the fourth annual Digicel-sponsored Inter-Secondary School Football Championships continued across Guyana yesterday.

Playing at the Ministry of Education ground, South Ruimveldt rode on the back of skipper Keith Caines’ helmet-trick which was backed by a brace from Xavier Scott, to defeat Christ Church Secondary 9-1. At the Police Sports Club ground Eve Leary, St John’s blanked Sophia Special School 7-0, thanks to Tyrese Ford’s helmet-trick.
At the Walton Sports Club ground in Essequibo, Aurora defeated Abram’s Zuil Secondary 4-1, while New Opportunity Corps (NOC) proved too strong for Johanna Cecelia, coming away with a perfect 10-0 win to advance to the second round.
After a sedate start in overcast conditions, Scott opened the scoring for South Ruimveldt with his 8th minute goal, after receiving a pass from Caines, who two minutes later made it 2-0 with his first of four goals.
After a see-saw battle for possession in Christ Church’s half, which underlined South Ruimveldt’s dominance of the encounter, Caines made a solo run on the right hand side and sent a wonderful pass to an unmarked Scott, who placed the ball at the back of the net in the 24th minute.
One minute later Caines, who displayed an unselfish attitude, made another run and completed the play to make it 4-0 in favour of South Ruimveldt, who fought hard to deny Jovanty Best exploiting their defence and piercing their goal area.
When play resumed in the second half, Abdul Edwards and got a flick pass from Caines, which he lobbed over the head of the defender and sent a first time volley into the back of the net and even though South Ruimveldt had a 5-0 lead with Edwards’ goal, they continued to attack their opponents relentlessly in search of more goals.
They got two more off the feet of Jamaine Beckles in the 47th minute, while Christ Church’s Lonsdale George had the opportunity to reduce his team’s deficit to five, when he made a solo run but shot wide of an empty goal after eluding South Ruimveldt’s custodian.
Wayne James missed the opportunity to put South Ruimveldt further ahead from a Caines corner kick, but Kevin McPherson did not muff his chance, when he made it 7-0 with his 54th minute goal, before Shamar Codrington pulled one back for Christ Church in the 58th minute, after a spirited solo run from Joshua Ali, who took the ball from his own third, deep into South’s box and made the cross.
Two more goals by Caines, scored within six minutes of each other, (62nd and 68th minutes) completed his helmet-trick and also South Ruimveldt’s dominance over Christ Church, who were sent back to the drawing board to start early preparations for next year’s tournament.
At Eve Leary, Forde found the back of the net in the 9th, 29th, 35th and 86th minutes of play, backed by Tyrone Arthur’s brace scored in the 19th and 52nd minutes and a solitary strike from Tafari Persaud in the 15th minute to hand St. John’s the win over Sophia Special School.
In Essequibo, David Belgrave became the third player to nail home personal helmet-tricks yesterday, as he did so for NOC in the 5th 35th, 76th and 84th minutes to guide them to the win after receiving support from Stephen Apple who got a double in the 25th and 37th minutes of play.
Four other players, namely Ossie Dey (10th), Keyoma Pilgrim (30th), Keston Browne (52nd) and Shemar Davis (69th), added support to Belgrave and Apple for their team, while the goalscorers for the contest between Aurora Secondary and Abram’s Zuil Secondary which the former won, were unavailable.
First-round action continues today with Wakapoa opposing Charity and 8th of May facing Cotton Field at Charity, Beterverwagting Secondary meeting Golden Grove at Victoria, Covent Garden and Camille’s Institute clashing at Grove, GITC going up against St Winefride at Ministry of Education and Business School looking to take care of business against Morgan Learning Institute, at Eve Leary.
With the exception of the two matches at Charity from 14:00hrs and 16:00hrs, all other matches will kick off at 15:30hrs.

(By Calvin Roberts)