Grigamandala and Sagitun in football finals
Good evening and welcome to this scintillating edition of Sports Monday. The road to the BFL Football Championships for Kulture Yabra of Belize City, led them South to the Michael Ashcroft Stadium Saturday night where they faced the playoff leader Sagitun of Independence in a must win situation. For the host team, becoming the first to qualify for the 3-game championship series was the ultimate objective naturally.
We open to this mass of blue and white on the kick and yes it is a celebration by Sagitun who got a goal from Raul Celiz in the opening minutes of play and yes our cameras were not ready for the event but that’s another story.
Stung by the suddenness of the blow, Yabra responds immediately as Norman “Tilliman” Nunez serves perfectly to Estevan Hall but it’s certainly an opportunity Hall would want back. A few minutes later the situation is reversed when Hall deals to “Tilliman” but the result remains the same.
Meanwhile folks you make the call – does Vallan Simms’ defensive output here warrant a penalty call? Referee Ariel Caballero believes so and the Yabra team is fighting mad. And you can see folks the man in the middle finds himself in the middle of a powder keg.
Nevertheless Bent Burgess steps up and hands Sagitun a 2-zip 1st half lead 20 minutes in with this conversion. Already frustrated with the calls being blown Norman Nunez has to apply self-control when he is called foul on this scoring attempt and at the half it’s still Sagitun up by 2.
At the start of the 2nd half, the running battle between the 4th official Ruperto Vicente and Yabra Headcoach Charlie Slusher on the sidelines reaches a boiling point resulting in Slusher’s eventual departure from the stadium after a rather extended game delay of 13 minutes.
This fires up the city team and off this corner kick Deron Jones fires this bullet header that crashes into the net to half the Sagitun lead. Yabra looks for the equalizer on this shot from Estevan Hall but Hinds’ save is brilliant. Downfield Ben Avides comes up with the initial beat but the double team but the Yabra defensive freezes him out of firing position.
Meanwhile folks watch “Tilliman” push this ball into the goal and he may have been helped by David Manu McCauley as our slo-mo indicates but it scores and the referee credits Nunez with the goal as the scoreboard shows a 2-2 tie.
This brings down the rain with a vengeance but the show must go on and for the first time Yabra has the momentum in this ballgame. Still its Raul Celiz with the opportunity to give Sagitun a 3-2 lead but Willie Bo makes a monster stop.
Things get complicated for Yabra when Barragan mashes Benedict Lopez with this hard foul which he gets chased off the field of play by referee Caballero. This almost creates real violence on the field of play but in the end cooler heads prevail except for Raul Celiz of Sagitun who gets ejected for mouthing off too much to the referee.
Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth people Bent Burgess certainly wants this one back after it bounces off the near upright to give Yabra a reprieve and at the end of regulation it’s still a 2-2 ballgame.
In overtime play Benedict Lopez gets chased for this rough tackle on Vallan Simms and has to be restrained from hitting the referee but after 30 minutes of overtime play it’s still a 2-2 score so we go to penalty kicks, which is only good for 1 point.
It’s sudden death penalty when Willie Bo’s launch is stopped by his counterpart Darren Hinds with the penalty shots tied at 6 apiece. Sagitun seals the deal by sending goleador Bent Burgess who beats Willie Bo easily to give the home team the 1 point win. More importantly Sagitun becomes the 1st team to qualify for the 3 game championship series while Yabra’s championship hopes are effectively eliminated.
At Dangriga yesterday Grigamandala issued a 3-zip blast on La Victoria to clinch the other playoff birth making this years BFL title series a strictly southern affair.
Now here’s a quick look at the softball results from the weekend of play at Roger’s Stadium. Team CTC took out Tigers 11-zip as Janelle Smith threw a perfect game. Acros stopped archrival Lady Rebels 8-3 as Mary Flowers takes that W, and Royal Devils was handed 12-1 route by Vikings in male play.
That’s our show for today, but we’ve got to remind you that next week the National Team travels to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, to face Guatemala in the World Cup Qualifying Matches. Belize has yet to win one, but win, lose or draw I’m a Belizean.
