DELROY Dean netted the first hat-trick of this year’s Kashif & Shanghai Football tournament when he fired the home side BV/Triumph United past Timehri Panther 3-1 while national player Dwayne Jacobs netted a double as Buxton United defeated Winners Connection of Linden by a similar margin.

The atmosphere set the tone for a night of wonderful football as scores flocked the Beterverwagting (BV) Community Centre to catch the two East Coast teams in action and their teams (BV & Buxton United), did not let them down.
Of the two contests, the night’s second game was by far the more entertaining with the host team showing their seriousness in contending for the tournament’s $4M first prize.
Delroy Dean netted the first of his three goals just seven minutes into play, much to the delight of the fans. However, the visitors were able to pull one back in the 37th minute, levelling the scores 1-1 when BV custodian was a bit sloppy with the ball and Dexroy Adams made no mistake in making them suffer for it.
But the Panthers’ celebration was short-lived since Dean was able to put his side back on top two minutes later, giving them a 2-1 lead at the end of the first half.
From the start of the second stanza, BV United proved to be the more dominant team and this time their overseas-based player Dominique Henry showed his star-quality in the midfield.
Henry troubled the Panthers goalkeeper throughout the second half with most of his shots coming from long range, way outside of the 18-yard area and on all three occasions, the only thing that stopped him was the uprights.
Dean sealed his hat-trick in the 50th minute and could’ve also added a fourth goal to his tally.
A few minutes after scoring his third goal, Dean had easily gotten around the Timehri Panther keeper and patted the ball into the goal and had started his celebration for a helmet-trick but a defender cleared the ball off the goal line and the home side’s supporters were outraged, thinking that the ball was already in the goal.
The win means that BV will now play the winner of tonight’s clash between Alpha ‘The Hammer’ United and Rosignol United on Christmas Day at home.
Meanwhile Winners Connection had no means of stopping Dwayne Jacobs who had a field day against their feeble defence.
After missing several clear chances, Jacobs sent his side up 1-0 just on the stroke of halftime and then gave them a 2-0 lead just five minutes into play in the second.
Rawle ‘Boney’ Gittens tried to salvage some pride in the 81st minute for the team from Linden but that would not be for long as Esan Hammer who came on as a late substitute, put the icing on the cake with his strike in the 90th minute and sent his side through to the next round.
Buxton United’s win now sees them playing at home on Christmas Day, coming up against the winner of tonight’s clash between BK International Western Tigers and Grove Hi-Tech.