Agricola overcome Soesdyke; Timehri beat Mocha

AGRICOLA erased a one-goal deficit to defeat Soesdyke Falcons 3-1 to book a place in the Guyana Football Federation national league playoffs, when rivalry in the Stag Beer-sponsored East Bank Football Association division-one league second-round continued yesterday at the Grove Playfield.With the knowledge that a place in the nation’s premier tournament was at stake both teams fancied their chances of coming out victorious but it was the Agricola side that emerged with full points and the possibility of making the GFF league if they get past the other association teams who will also compete.
Following a compact opening 30 minutes where neither side gave away too much, it was the Soesdyke boys who took the lead, capitalising on a good run with the go-ahead goal which came off the boot of Collin Holder in the 30th minute.
Having defeated their foes in the first round 5-0, Agricola somehow felt that it would have been another walk in the park, but they were wrong as Soesdyke were much more determined and took the game to the Agricola boys.
However, Agricola did not panic even though they found themselves trailing. Their leading marksman Gordon Grant was getting warmed and unleashed his first goal of a double with five minutes remaining in the half to even things up.
Up to the halfway mark it was still an even game with neither team exerting total dominance on the other. The second half was also a close affair and while Agricola were more dominant in the attacking third, Soesdyke managed o keep them at bay.
But constant pressure they say breaks down the wall eventually and that is how it went for Agricola as they were awarded a penalty in the 85th minute when Kacey John was brought down in the box by Nicholas Bradshaw.
Grant was entrusted with taking the kick and did not let his team down as he placed the ball into the right corner of Javier Greene’s goal to double the advantage and his personal tally at a critical stage of the game.
The game was placed beyond the reach of Soesdyke two minutes later when John was again in the mix of this. A well placed cross was clinically put into the back of the net again to Greene’s right by Collin Ritchie. The win pushed Agricola’s points tally to 23 still one behind Soesdyke but with a game in hand.
In the afternoon’s opening fixture Timehri Panthers also won by a similar 3-1 margin against Mocha Champs, their 7th win of the league, handing Mocha their 10th loss.
Leading Timehri was Alywn Adams who converted a double. He netted in the 23rd and 52nd minutes. His teammate Lawrence Steele opened the scoring in the 21st minute of a game that they dominated from start to finish.
Mocha were able to score a consolation goal which came off the boot of Troy Griffith in the 44th minute.