Digicel Nationwide Schools Football competition ...Farley scores 4 as St John’s overwhelm E’bo Islands Secondary 11-0

Digicel Nationwide Schools Football competition …Farley scores 4 as St John’s overwhelm E’bo Islands Secondary 11-0

Jun 27, 2015 Sports

By Sean Devers
The game was not as one-sided as the final result suggested when the Digicel National Schools Football tournament continued yesterday at the National Track & Field Centre at Leonara with St John’s Secondary whipping

Goal scorers (from left) Keon Farley, Ruben Dainty, Akimbo Henry, Sheldon Benjamin, Randy Bharrat & Gary Mingo.

Essequibo Islands Secondary 11-nil in the Region Three Zone.
Consistent late starts have now became ‘normal’ in this tournament and when the contest eventually commenced in sunny conditions, a small gathering of spectators comprising mainly female Teachers of the St. John’s school saw the West Coast institution reach 4-0 by half time.
But St John’s Secondary, which was originally located opposite the Leonora Stadium in the Village of Edinburgh, but is now housed at Den Amstel Community Center due to the unfit state of the bottom flat of their school, had to work hard for their goals in the first stanza as the Essequibo side displayed a decent defence on the heavy field.
St John’s created two scoring opportunities inside the first three minutes but E’bo Islanders’ defence exhibited good clearances on both occasions.
However, in the 5th minute, Sheldon Benjamin collected a loose ball in front the goal mouth and booted it for the opening goal and their supporters, some of whom knew nothing about Football, screamed in delight.
Although St John’s had more ball possession, the students from the Essequibo school, which is located in the Island of Wakenaam which produced International Cricketer Ramnaresh Sarwan, had a fair share of the ball in the first half.
A wonderful solo run down the right wing by an unmarked Akimbo Henry, outsprinting the opposition and with only the Goalie to beat, drilled the ball past Alec Clermonson to make it 2-0.
Ruben Dainty made it 3-nil in the 22nd minute when he patted the ball to the right of the advancing Clermonson, while Randy Bharrat scored in the 37th minute to make it 4-nil but although St John’s played the more attacking football they did not have things all their way as the team from Guyana largest County stayed back and defended for dear life.
As the players got more tired in the second half, E’bo found themselves with the ball in St John’s area a few times but they were dispossessed before they could shoot.
St John’s Keeper Auton Simmons had some work to do and made a beautiful save when an Essequibo player managed to ‘fire one’ on target but it was soon 5-0 when Danity again found the back of the net in the 45th minute before two minutes later Henry made it 6 to nothing.
Despite some good saves which denied St John’s from surpassing the 16 goals scored by Leonora against the Professional Learning Institute on Thursday at the same venue, Farley scored for the fourth time and Gary Mingo’s 70th minute effort put the icing on the cake to send the Essequibo side on their boat journey from Parika to Wakenaam a dejected bunch.