West Demerara giant Den Amstel squeaked past Santos by a 1-0 scoreline to clinch their quarterfinal berth when the Guyana Football Federation (GFF)/Kashif and Shanghai Super-16 Championship continued on Sunday at the National Training Centre, Leonora.
A solitary conversion settled the physical encounter, which was dominated and highlighted by rugged defending.
Darren Niles of Santos recorded the only noteworthy moment of the opening stanza, as he was denied by the goalkeeper in the 22nd minute.
Picking up the ball 26 yards from goal in the centre of the field, the Golden Jaguar youth international uncorked a powerful right-footed strike, which was punched away by the diving custodian.
However, a poor punched clearance by the Santos goal-keeper led to the Den Amstel conversion, as wily Jamal Perreira capitalized to etch his name on the scorer’s sheet.
Lurking inside the left of the penalty area, Perreira, who latched onto the failed attempted clearance by goalkeeper Alex Murray following a cross from the right flank, thumped his right-footed effort into the lower left corner.
Nicholas MacArthur spurned a great opportunity to level proceedings in the minute, racing into the right side of the penalty box during a counterattack, only to blast his right-footed shot into the side netting.
Substitute forward Delon Lanferman was also denied the equaliser in the 80th minute, by the advancing custodian who smothered the danger, diving with his hands inside the centre of the penalty area.
Over at the Bartica Community Centre, the hosts Bartica All-Stars crushed Essequibo All-Stars 5-0. A. Simon recorded a hat-trick in the 24th, 32nd and 75th minute, while J. Jones fashioned a double in the 52nd and 77th minute.
The tournament will resume tomorrow at the Mackenzie Sports Club (MSC) ground, Linden.
In the opening match, Milerock will oppose East Bank Demerara All-Stars at 18:30hrs while the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) will take aim at the Upper Demerara All-Stars at 20:30hrs.
