Grigamandala rallies to beat Dolphins
Good evening I’m James Adderly and we’re glad you could join us for this fresh serving of Sports Monday. Playoff fever has gripped the Belize Football League and two contenders clashed inside the Carl Ramos Stadium in what can only be described as a pivotal showdown. So let’s head to Dangriga where Grigamandala plays host to the San Pedro Dolphins with both teams needing a win to further their respective playoff ambitions.
In the early going it’s Dangriga pressing the action when Danny Diego fires at Delmar Sutherland but misses the target. Downfield the Dolphins get going off the corner kick that finds Jeremy Sweet, who comes up with this header. For Stanley Reneau its like candy.
Now let the record show, this confrontation was of the physical kind as demonstrated here by Irwin “Bird” Flores and Oliver Hendricks. And no folks this is not a way to play football, the players are simply avoiding contact with a swarm of killer bees that have invaded the Carl Ramos Stadium.
Malakai Nolberto gets the buzz for a goal and fires just inside the 18 but the ball inches in front of the sticks. For Dangriga this individual effort by Francis Arzu beats everyone but gets stopped by the near upright and the Dolphins breathe a sigh of relief.
Meanwhile folks, Arzu gets chased out of the park when he hands this elbow on Florentino Gonzalez forcing the San Pedrano to abandon the terrain in search of first aid – he wouldn’t return to the fray.
Nevertheless on the next play, Mark Leslie finds Nolberto, who heels to Danny Diego and the ball beats Sutherland to give the South a 1-zip lead 35 minutes in. This provided San Pedro with a renewed sense of urgency and when Stanley Reneau fumbles this shot, Christopher Hendricks left foot it into the net for a 1-1 tie at the 44th minute.
In just under a minute later when Oliver Hendricks picks up this lose ball to fire a left foot that crashes into the far upright and tangles into the net as San Pedro takes a 2-1 lead into intermission. At the half we caught up with BFL President Maito Perdomo.
James Adderly
“Tell us about the championship format, what it’s going to be like and what it looks like and if you have any teams that you think are going to be there?”
Maito Perdomo, President, BFL
“Well, the finals, is going to be a three game series, the best out of three games. It could finish in two, if a team wins the first two, then that’s it. It’s going to be like a home and away and the last game if it’s necessary will be played on a neutral ground. Going into today’s game, I was looking at maybe a championship with the southern teams. It looks like Grigamandala and Sagitun, but we don’t know, we are still a little ways off. We have two more weeks after this, we have next weekend and then there’s a break on the 21st, when the National Team plays Guatemala and the 28th. Looks like it’s gonna go down to the wire.”
James Adderly
“That means the two teams with the best record…”
Maito Perdomo
“Go to the finals.”
James Adderly
“Right. And that’s set in steel?”
Maito Perdomo
“Right, that can’t change. It’s the two teams that accumulate the most points or if two teams have equal amount of points, then we go to goal difference and those two teams go to the finals for the three game play offs.”
In 2nd half play the contest gets even more competitive and it’s 35 minutes deep when Aaron Locario tries to shoot, Ervin “Bird” Flores catches up with the pill and smacks it into the goal for the 2-2 tie. Nine minutes later, the game winner comes from the boots of Warren Flowers, who forces this grounder past Delmar for the 3-2 Dangriga big W. Grigamandala moves to 17 points, still in contention for the championship. Dolphins are stalled at 9 and are out of the picture.
In other games over the weekend Sagitun blasted La Victoria 3-zip to stay atop the standings while the Kulture Yabra bombed Real Verdes at the Norman Broaster in a 6-1 route to keep its championship hopes alive.
In volleyball news, here are the results of Saturdays games played at the City Centre. Christ Crusaders knocked off John 3:16 in three sets 26-24, 22-25, 21-19 inn Firms Division play. In male Division action, AMS Jaguars got pass Mirab 20-25, 25-21, 25-23, 16-25, 15-09. Texaco Belize did a number on Corozal’s “Kardims” 21-25, 24-26, 25-21, 25-10, 15-05.
In cricket news Nazarene High School batted first in the Secondary School Finals against St. John’s College and could only come up with 52 runs for 9 so here comes SJC on offense. After 8 batters SJC shows 49 runs when this batter smashes a 4, it’s enough to lift SJC to the first ever Secondary School Cricket Title. They have written their names into the history books with this particular win. By the way Governor General Sir Colville Young was instrumental in making this season a success.
