By Duncan Saul
Teams from the mining town of Linden maintained their perfect record in the second annual Petra Organization/Limacol football tournament after title holders Milerock and Federal Winners Connection defeated Northern Rangers and Grove Hi-Tech respectively Saturday.
The Georgetown Football Club (GFC) ground, Bourda must have felt more like the Mackenzie Sports Club (MSC) venue as the visitors seemed unfazed despite being in foreign territory.
Milerock edged Kitty’s Northern Rangers 2-1 while Winners Connection downed East Bank Demerara outfit Grove Hi-Tech 3-1 following in the footsteps of Eagles who defeated Uitvlugt in their opening fixture.
Troy Lewis gave Milerock the lead in the 10th minute in a fortuitous manner as a powerful right-foot, free-kick, from the top of the box, went through the goalkeeper and settled into the right corner after taking a slight deflection off a defender.
Akeem Green then doubled the lead on the stroke of halftime in sublime fashion. Receiving the ball 22 yards from the target, Green unleashed a thunderous right-foot strike which crashed onto the underside of the crossbar and settled into the back of the net.
Although the second period witnessed an improvement in the Kitty unit’s offensive plan, they failed to trouble the opposition’s goalkeeper on a regular basis.
Devon Johnson eventually fashioned a consolation goal in the 90th+1 minute, curling a brilliant right-foot, free-kick from the top of the box which sailed away from the diving custodian and into the left corner.
Milerock walked away with three points while Northern Rangers remain without a point.
Meanwhile, Winners Connection secured three points compliments of goals from Garey Thompson, Sedrick Hunte and Rawle Gittens in the 13th, 32nd and 69th minute respectively.
For Grove Hi Tech, emerging talent Kevin Padmore found the back of the net in the 78th minute. Round two of the group stage will commence today (Monday) at the same venue.
In the opening fixture at 18:30hrs, Winners Connection will oppose Northern Rangers while the Guyana Police Force (GPF) will engage Camptown at 20:30hrs.
The event is being contested in a round-robin format with the top two finishers in each group progressing to the quarterfinal round.
The winner of each group will receive $100,000 while the respective finishers will pocket $50,000, $30,000 and $20,000 apiece.
Winner of the event will pocket $500,000 and a trophy while the second, third and fourth placed teams will receive $300,000, $200,000 and $100,000 respectively and the corresponding accolade. To date, Banks DIH Limited under the GT Beer Brand, Trophy Stall and Star Party Rentals are the other companies that have thrown their support behind the championship.
