Upper Demerara edged their Georgetown counterparts 4-3 in a penalty shoot-out to win the Guyana Football Federation (GFF)/Demerara Distillers Ltd Inter-Association under-17 Football tournament at the GFC ground yesterday.
Upper Demerara’s Clive Vickery was the lone player unable to finish a penalty shot for the team. Vickery fired the last shot of five directly into the arms of Georgetown keeper, Kerry Graham.
Vickery’s missed chance gave Georgetown some hope after Andrew Murray Jr committed a similar crime off the team’s third attempt.
Georgetown scored the first two and the fourth but Manasseh Primo could not put the city side back in contention off the last attempt as he sent the ball wide of the left side goal post at the Regent Road end to the disappointment of the Georgetown fans.
In the third place play-off, Berbice mauled Bartica 6-3.
Shurlane Edwards opened Berbice’s account in the 16th minute and wasted no time to complete a hat-trick in the 27th and 50th minutes. Kenston Lindey scored in the 18th minute while Roger Crandon and Delroy Ferdinand had goals in 77th and 85th minutes respectively.
Bartica’s Dwayne Blake also finished with a hat-trick, scoring the three goals in the 19th, 35th and 88th minutes of the game.
Upper Demerara dominated the first 20 minutes of the first half, creating far more goal scoring opportunities than Georgetown; the team’s closest chance in the half came off a shot from Kennard Simon that was beautifully block by the feet of Graham on the left side of the Regent Road end goal.
Approximately eight minutes later, Upper Demerara’s Kevin Beaton lofted a good chance over the cross bar after dribbling his way past Graham just outside the six yard box. The Georgetown unit re-grouped after the attack in the final minutes of the first half.
The second half resumed in the same manner like the first with Upper Demerara
Attacking from the first whistle, but the city defense prevented any intended penetration.
Murray was the culprit of a few missed chances late in the second half as the teams played to nil all at the end of regulation time.
They were allotted 15 minutes extra time to make amends but that turned up empty at the end as well.
Edwards with a total of seven goals, received the award for most goals scorer in the tournament while Graham got the trophy for most outstanding goalkeeper.
The most valuable player of the final and of the tournament accolades went to Upper Demerara’s Michael Crandon and Beaton respectively.
