Inter-Office finals goes to game three
Good evening, I’m James Adderley and we’re glad you could join us for this dish of Sports Monday.
The B.P.F.L. kicked off its four team semi-finals over the weekend so we headed to the F.F.B.’s Football Field at Capital City Belmopan yesterday where the Belize Defense Force hosted Hankook Verdes in the first of a home and away series that will see one team serve at the finals. Folks, we’re only eleven minutes in when Daniel Jimenez outruns the B.D.F. defense on the left side to set table perfectly for Amin August and his left foot into an empty goal gives Verdes the 1-zip lead. Just three minutes later Evan Mariano, in search of the scoring opportunity, is taken down inside the eighteen by Luis Mendez and the penalty call is easy to make. The military puts Vallan Symms in charge of the conversion and on this trip to the penalty spot, the veteran fails to hit the target. Folks, you deicide who is game; Jamie Brooks comes out of his goal to punch out this center, the ball reaches Dennis Serano, his left foot push should have been cleared by Luis Mendez. Instead, the ball travels under the defense’s foot and the ballgame is tied at one apiece at the thirty-seventh minute. We’re deep into second half play when Nunez tries this left foot easily corralled by Woodrow West. We must conclude neither team did enough in this match-up to claim the big W as regulation closed on a 1-1 score.
The other semi-final match also rallied to a draw with Nizhee Corozal coming from two down in the first half to force a 2-2 tie with F.C. Belize at the M.C.C. Grounds. Thus this Sunday the Belize Defence Force marches to Hankook Verdes while F.C. Belize travels to Nizhee Corozal. The two winners on Sunday will then advance to the finals.
Checking in on the Female league over the weekend, Gentle Touch doubled Pumas Girls 4-2, the B.D.F. Mashed up All Season Stars 3-2, Millennium Girls blanked the B.D.F. 5-zip and Millennium Girls also beat ambassador 2-nil on their default.
Turning to the basketball scene, game two of Inter-Office Basketball championship series certainly brought excitement to the City Center Friday night as the Belize City Council looked to tie the game series against the Atlantic Bank. And indeed right off the tip off Dave Apolonio gets the bank started with this three point shot. Justin Wade then slices through traffic to hit the jumper in the paint. In fact, it’s an 11-2 lead when Gadsden Ferguson finds Kenroy “MVP” Usher who banks two off the glass for the City Council. Ferguson will spot up for three right here and would hit the first of three to eventually lead all players with twenty-two points in this outing. At the end of the first quarter it’s a 14-12 score in favour of Atlantic Bank. Down by two in the second quarter Andrew “Head” Staine works his magic to ties the ballgame but would miss the extra point attempt. Give the assist to “Head” Staine as Darwin Elijio pops in the two. Darwin Elijio would put up fourteen points tonight. And it’s Elijio striking for three as Atlantic Bank tries to pull away. At the other end Randall Henkis finds Darwin Myles who would contribute ten points in this one. Still at the half Atlantic Bank is up 29-26. Andrew Stained pushes the lead to five in the third quarter with this move. Now here’s nice ball movement from the City Council. Hinks finds Kenroy Usher who deals to Turo Neal Jr. and let me tell you Fish finished with fourteen points in this outing. In the meantime, this bucket by Jermaine Tillett allows the bank to hang on to the lead. Tillett would throw up eight points. Arthur Neal comes right back with the council’s response. This big three by Gadsden Ferguson his second of the night gives City Council a one point lead at the end of three the City Council leads 51-47. Folks, in the fourth it’s all City Council. Ferguson deals to Virgil Miller. He gets two of his six fame points. Randall Henkis then intercepts this Jermaine Tillett pass and goes all the way for two. Dave Apolonio tries to keep his team in the game with this bucket and would finish the three point play. Apolonio would lead the Bank with nineteen points. This is a big bucket by Justin Wade as he pulls his team to within three points. And here comes “Head” Staine on the attack. He is fouled by Ferguson. He then feels like he was tripped and you can see his instant reaction. Of course, Staine was not himself tonight, hitting only thirteen points and was promptly ejected from the ballgame, which certainly hurt his team. Kenroy “MVP” Usher who would only score fourteen points tonight provides the nail in the Atlantic Bank coffin as Belize City Council goes to tie the series at one apiece with the 75-64 big W on Friday night. We caught up with League Director, Ian Mariano, to set the stage for game three Friday night inside the City Center and of course you don’t want to miss it.
Ian Mariano, Director, Inter-Office Basketball League
“Expect a game like none other. It’s been a while that we’ve seen basketball on this level in the country and on Friday night we promise people to come out. You wont be disappointed and I guarantee you’re gonna see a show, a spectacular show. The level has definitely risen and it’s for the ring. We’re definitely gonna give it out Friday night but who will get it? Well, it’s anybody’s ballgame.”
James Adderley
“There has been a bit of controversy from game two Friday night. Are we past that?”
Ian Mariano
“Long past that, James. The caliber of players that we have harnessed or recruited for the Inter-Office League, they know exactly what the league is about and what we stand for and as a result of that it was a hiccup and everybody just moved on and everybody’s okay.”
James Adderley
“Does this mean—I have to ask this specifically—Andrew “Head” Staine will be allowed to play in the similar fashion that Virgil Miller was allowed to play?”
Ian Mariano
“Definitely, we had a meeting with the two coaches on Saturday evening. We discussed it and both expressed that City Council would not want a victory without Andrew “Head” Staine and naturally Atlantic Bank wants their star player to play so what we’re going to do is we’re gonna impose a sanction on him but it will not be a game suspension.”
Turning to table tennis news, here are the results for the 2009 Summer Table Tennis Tournament recently concluded in the A Class division it was David Jones taking top honours over Zee Chen of Dangriga and Ernesto Rivera of Belize City. In the B Class it was Don Habet of San Ignacio beating Mandy Gomez and Lee Yiu Ming in that order. In the C Class division Don Jian of San Ignacio took the top prize, Michael Chen of Belize City took second, Miguel Guerra of Orange Walk third and in the under fifteen classification well, Adrian Cardona, twelve years old of Belize City took this division. He beat out Matthew Usher and Zackary Usher in that order. We say congratulations to all the winners.
In cycling news, we join the early morning movements yesterday as the Belize Cycling Association staged the tenth National Road Race. At the start in Silk Grass, we catch Kwame Scott of the Association registering the elite riders for the one hundred and eighteen mile ride that has attracted thirty-one riders. And as we say in the business, they’re off. By the time the race reaches the Hummingbird Highway, we have a four man lead featuring Glen O’Brien, Elston Coleman, Hernan Ochaeta and Giovanni Choto. But don’t count everybody out yet because the chase group is coming hard. And here’s a picture of the re-amalgamation of the pack as the hunt intensifies. But of this new configuration a five man pack executes this breakaway featuring Gregory Lovell, Nissan Arana, Giovanni Choto, Marlon Castillo and Roger Troyer. This breakaway of five would run all the way to the Boom Circuit with Bertram Brown and Darnell Barrow mounting a massive effort to catch up with the leaders. Coming out of the Boom road, Marlon Castillo has broken out all by himself and is in full control of the pace. However, at the descent of the Haulover Bridge the lead five has regrouped. So we’re at the sprint in going to the finish line at Alliance Bank Marlon Castillo is the man on the pace and he crosses the line first to take the Nation Road Title, edging out Gregory Lovell, Nissan Arana rolls in third, Darnell Barrow fourth, Bertram Brown fifth while Roger Troyer rounds out the top six.
On the ladies side, Shalini Zabaneh took the seventy-four point nine mile race beating our Jane Usher and Alicia Thompson who finished second and third respectively. In the junior run, it was Richard Vernon with the eighty-one point five mile Big W, Allen Moore took second and Tariq Cano rounds out the top three.
Hey folks, that’s our show for today. We invite you back same time, same place, next week. Jah over all, I’m James Adderley.
