Honduras beats Belize in football
Good evening I’m James Adderly and you’re right on time for this most recent serving of Sports Monday. For sure folks us Belizean sports fans couldn’t be happy with the result from the heavy actions over the weekend. The worst disappointment came from the CONCACAF ballgame at Corozal as winless La Victoria hosted Olympia of Honduras at the Ricalde Stadium yesterday.
We pick up the action five minutes in as the visitors line up for this spot-kick just inside the eighteen and yes, just like that, Olympia goes up 1-zip. If this is the response by the La Victoria then we’re in big trouble people because Rangel Varguez embarrasses himself. The Hondurans, understandably smell an easy victory and goal number two comes off this powerful right foot shot right on the top of the eighteen. It’s almost 3-zip here off the corner kick, but a well positioned La Victoria defense makes a big time save.
Now folks pray tell, do you see an offside here? The referee from El Salvador does and he nullifies the header in what can only be termed a unilateral dispensation of mercy. La Victoria dodges another bullet right here coming up with back to back saves, but the handwriting is already on the wall. A few minutes later the dreaded autogoal victimizes La Victoria as Olympia takes a 3-zip lead into intermission.
Early into 2nd half, the visitors with total command of the ballgame look for goal number four, but their striker gets taken down for a penalty. Mercifully, the launch from number eleven hits the far upright to leave the scoreboard unchanged. The visitors nevertheless, never let up the pressure, penetrating the La Victoria defense at will, forcing Marvin Ottley to come up with this big save.
Talk about saves people, this is the save of the day as Marvin Ottley is in total beaten, but the defense digs it out of the goal with his head, unfortunately, the highlight for the La Victoria are all defensive as they fall 3-zip. One shudders to think what will happen in the away game this Wednesday at Honduras.
Meanwhile for Sagitun the results were a little better as they rallied to a 2-2 draw against Arabe Unido of Panama Saturday night at Independence.
Turning to the cycling scene, here are the sight and sounds from the early morning start of the 18th edition of the Belmopan Cycling Classic as some 50 riders make a bid in this 100 mile race on the Western Highway.
We pick up the sprint for the finish with three riders looking for the “W” and it’s Scott Mercer, riding for Smiling Meats and American, who takes the win. Quinton “The Baddest” Hamilton of Bel-Chi Uprising pulls up 2nd, while Bobby Lee of Santinos settles for 3rd. Now here’s the sprint for 4th place, which is taken by Mateo Cruz of Santinos. After looking at the tapes folks, we’re not sure if its Ariel Rosado or Shane Vasquez, who takes 5th place so the Cycling Association, who has received a protest from the Bel-Chi team, who claims “The Baddest” Hamilton was pushed during the sprint. We’ll just have to wait and see folks.
Quinton “The Baddest” Hamilton, 2nd Place
“Well just at the finish, me and Bobby Lee and that guy Scott Mercer were just coming to the end and from there at the last fifty meters, they team up and he came and cut me and I got caught up in the edge of the vehicle. By the time I got out it was too late.”
James Adderly
“You recovered to be a part of the sprint, how did that sprint go?”
Quinton Hamilton
“Well it went bad because I had much left, but it was too late. The tape is about fifty yards from the about the drugstore.”
James Adderly
“You caught Bobby Lee, but you couldn’t catch Mercer.”
Quinton Hamilton
“It was too late.”
James Adderly
“On the road, did you feel them double team you as a Belizean?”
Quinton Hamilton
“Well at the last 20 miles, they had a pack and they guess that was what they were supposed to do.”
James Adderly
“From the beginning this morning, you were able to stay in the lead pack. At the end you’re also in the lead pack, you came in and won this race. You want to tell us a little bit about the strategy you utilized?”
Scott Mercer, Winner, Belmopan Cycling Classic
“Well living in New York, it’s been really cold up there and having to ride in the snow all winter, and I was really worried about the heat and the humidity, not used to it. So my plan was to ride fairly conservatively for those reasons. So not used to the heat and my teammate Andrew was not having a good day, he was coming off of being sick, so we were pretty outnumbered by the other teams. I just planned on lighten it up in the second half of the race and have things hopefully come out in the laundry at the finish.”
Turning to the volleyball scene here’s the result of the games played Saturday at the Civic Center. In Female Division, BH Paints-Little Stars got pass Lady Scorpions 25-19, 28-26. Over in the male Division, it was big bad Sagitun getting pass the BDF Defenders 25-18, 25-20. Cayo Wolverines grounded Tropic Air Flyers 21-25, 25-15, 16-14. And Scorpions stung Corozal 23-25, 25-23, 15-8.
As soon as we get official word from the Belize Amateur Cycling Association concerning this protest lodged by the Bel-Chi team, we’ll pass it on. That’s it for now.
