Wismar/Christianburg Secondary booked their third consecutive finals berth as they humbled Georgetown champions St. George’s High 6-1 in the semifinal of the Digicel National U18 Secondary Schools Football Tournament at the Beterverwagting (BV) ground, East Coast of Demerara yesterday. Played witness to a small gathering, Wismar/Christian-burg would break the early deadlock through a Marimarleque Davidson 11th minute strike as he simply rounded the onrushing St. George’s custodian inside the 18-yard area and finished.
St. George’s would level proceedings 17 minutes later in identical fashion through a Neil
Cameron effort. The Linden side would, however, retake the lead two minutes later compliments of a Donnovan Francis 30th minute header inside the penalty area.
The defending champions would increase their lead in the 39th minute through a brilliantly placed chipped shot from the left side of the field by Davidson to complete his first half double.
Shane Luckie would strengthen the Linden side’s already advantageous position with a 41st minute conversion.
The lopsided encounter would continue in the second period as Jashawn Moore etched his name on the scorer’s sheet in the 58th minute through a left footed strike from outside the 18-yard area that went comically through the legs of the St. George’s custodian.
Unable to respond to the organization and barrage of physicality displayed by the Linden unit, Nigel Caesar would complete the one-sided affair with a strike in the 91st minute within the six-yard area following a fumble from a right side cross by the goalkeeper.
In a post match comment victorious coach Anthony Stephens stated: “Firstly, we must thank God because without him nothing is possible. We played a brilliant game. There are one or two things we have to work on but we played well. Personally, we don’t focus on a team but just on our game. We will just design a game plan to be victorious come kick off time.”
Coach of the losing team Andrew Hazel in an invited comment said: “We lost to a team that played superior football. We had times when we got behind their defence but we didn’t capitalize on those few chances. Basically we lost the game in the midfield, we weren’t compact and our goalkeeping wasn’t very good. We have a good bunch of players but we need some more work.”
Over at the Uitvlugt Community Center ground on the East Bank of Demerara, Region Seven winners and 2012 losing finalists Waramadong Secondary booked their second consecutive finals berth as they edged Covent Garden Secondary 3-0 on penalty kicks.
Regulation time found both sides locked at 2-2 as Myles Albert and Whazir Bascombe netted for the eventual winners in the seventh and 33rd minutes respectively. On target for Covent Garden were Matthew Charles and Eson Haynes in the 49th and 55th minutes correspondingly. With their win, the defending champs Wismar/ Christian-burg will now face familiar foe Waramadong Secondary in the grand tournament final on Sunday July 28th at the Police Sports Club (PSC) ground, Eve Leary from 18:30hrs.
This matchup will be in a rematch of the 2012 final. Losing semifinalists St. Georges High and Covent Garden Secondary will do battle at the same venue in the third place encounter at 16:30hrs.
