Sunburst Camptown made its way into the semi-final round of the Georgetown Football Association’s (GFA) DeSinco Trading Under-18 football Tournament yesterday at the Camptown ground with a victory over Beacon United.
In the encounter which was reduced from 70 minutes to one hour due to a late start, Sunburst Camptown overpowered Beacon United 2 – 1.
During the first 10 minutes after the kick-off Beacon United were often in Camptown’s half of the field and attempted numerous shots at the goal.
Not long after junior national forward Andel Norton drew first blood for Beacon when he blasted one through the hands of Camptown’s custodian Akosi Saul from inside the 18-yard box in the 20th minute.
Camptown however eventually got their game plan running and gained control of the ball which allowed Richie Richards to score the first goal of his double in the 25th minute.
Camptown crossed the ball from the right to the left flank with precision passes and broke free of the Beacon defence on many occasions and once the ball reached Richards, his work thereafter was easy as he thumped the ball into the back of the net past a rushing Beacon goalkeeper Ryan Jones.
The first 30 minutes concluded 1 – 1 and when the game resumed Beacons defence slowly began to wither and Camptown capitalized on that factor and Richards scored his next goal to bring about his double in the 50th minute.
Almost a repeat of how the first Camptown goal was scored, Jones rushed forward to defend and lost his balance in getting back to defend and Richards made no mistake of placing the ball into the top right corner of the goal.
With time running out Beacon became desperate in trying to find the equalizer to force the game into extra time.
The equalizer almost came for Beacon in the final minute of play but Saul denied the attempt with a tremendous save where he went airborne to the left and grabbed the ball.
Camptown’s coach Sampson Gilbert said that his team executed its game plan excellently and he is very much satisfied with the win and how they played.
“Leading up to this game we were working on tactical awareness and I think this played the largest part in this game but we have a long way to go because it is a young team with a lot of talent and they are beginning to develop” a delighted Gilbert related.
Sunburst Camptown will now face the Fruta Conquerors in a ‘clash of the juices’ semi-final while Georgetown Football Club (GFC) and Alpha United will clash in the other semi-final on Saturday at the Tucville ground commencing at 4pm.
