Mahaica became the 2012 champions in the East Demerara Football Association (EDFA) Under-13 League by defeating Buxton Stars by a 3-0 margin in the final last Friday afternoon at the Buxton Community Ground, East Coast Demerara.
Kadeem Blackman scored two goals for the winning team while the other goal came from Diquan Gomes.
In the third place game, another Buxton-based side, Youth Developers, defeated Melanie Tritons 1-0. The lone goal of the game came from Shawn Rodney of Melanie Tritons in the 50th minute, 10 minutes to crunch time.
Team Mahaica was coached by former Pele FC Coach, Peter Gulliver.
Despite the size advantage of the Mahaica players, Buxton Stars took the fight to them early in the game and were doing a fine job until the 22nd minute when Blackman scored his first goal.
Adjudged as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player was Buxton’s star player Shamar Scott who, apart from scoring three goals, was the bedrock of his team’s defence.
Tafari Rogers of Melanie Tritons was the tournament’s leading goal scorer, hitting the network on four occasions.
B.V. Triumph United’s Shamar Singh was named the Best Goalkeeper while the Fair Play Award went to Youth Developers.
Special medals for their contributions to their teams, donated by Coach of Buxton Stars, Sherry Abrams, went to Nigel Manifold of Mahaica, Goalkeeper of Buxton Stars Elton Sullivan, Shamar of Youth Developers and Joshua Liverpool of Melanie.
Nine teams contested the competition that was sponsored by the Guyana Football Federation as part of their ongoing policy of supporting youth development.
The next youth tournament that the federation will be supporting in the EDFA will be played at the Under-17 level and that is expected to kick off in mid-September.
