In front of a small crowd, Beavers FC stormed into the second round of the 2nd Annual Stag Beer Super XVI Knockout Football Championship, dismantling Herstelling 6-2 on Wednesday.
Esan Nelson recorded a hat-trick in the 35th, 39th and 63rd minutes while Junior Witwright scored in the 31st, 42nd and 75th minutes at the Leonora Sports Facility in West Demerara. On target in the loss was Orwin Hunte and Seon Alfred in the 43rd and 51st minutes respectively.
Following the ceremonial kickoff featuring Guyana Football Federation (GFF) President Wayne Forde and Vice President Rawlston Adams, the lanky Witwright opened the floodgates after breaking the deadlock with a penalty conversion into the lower right-hand corner.
The score line was doubled four minutes onward as Nelson opened his account, racing onto the centre of the box while being challenged by a defender before finishing past the advancing keeper down the centre of the net.
It then ballooned to 3-0 as Nelson scored his second of the night, striking his effort from the left side of the box, which was deflected fortuitously into the left-hand corner by the advancing shot-stopper. Further misery befell the East Bank of Demerara unit as Witwright found the back of the net once more, racing onto a flicked pass within the left of the area unchallenged before placing his shot from the centre of the net.
On the receiving end for the majority of the fixture, Herstelling eventually pulled one back in the two minutes before the end of normal time as Hunte unleashed a lobbed shot from 35 yards out in the centre of the field, which sailed over the head of the keeper and into the right corner.
The resumption of action witnessed the East Bank of Demerara unit reducing the deficit to two, compliments of Alfred, who placed his attempt into the lower left hand corner, after collecting a left- sided cross within the centre of the box.
Nonetheless, that was the closest Herstelling came to overturning the deficit as Nelson sealed his hat-trick, playing a one-two pass combination following a solo run from the left side, before racing into the centre of the box and firing past the keeper into the lower left-hand corner.
Witwright then completed his hat-trick under comical circumstances as a left-sided cross bounced over the head of the onrushing keeper and fell into his path, allowing the forward to finish ahead of his team-mate unchallenged.
Beavers however suffered a setback in the 83rd minute as Nelson was sent off after picking up his second bookable offence.
