Kulture Yabra leads playoffs
Good evening, I’m James Adderly and you’re strapped in to the bubble that is Sports Monday. Sunday brought the BFL Football Playoffs to the MCC Grounds with Kulture Yabra opening up against Real Verdes of San Ignacio. Unfortunately for the city fans, the rains want center-stage at the Barracks on Sunday, but at this level, the show must go on and with this kick off, we’re underway. For certain, Real Verdes is in town to win and they try to score early here, off this vicious spot kick by Julio Santos that forces Willie Bo Bernard to display his great leaping ability. The response from the Kulture team is swift, but Norman Nunez’s header off the center from Emory Nunez is corralled by John Brooks. Of course seeing is believing and you’d better believe it, there’s a downpour in session. Meanwhile, when this header from Julio Ayala crashes against the crossbar, the Yabra fans breathe a sigh of relief while the Verdes fans groan. Never-the-less it’s Yabra who take the lead twenty six minutes in, when Emory Nunez tracks down this rebound off Brooks and smacks it into the net. David “Manu” McCauly then gets the opportunity to make it two-nil, but twice he fails to convert. But it’s Emory Nunez leading the big game today and here he goes for goal number two only to be denied by the defensive header from smart Osorabo. In the half, Verdes goes for the equalizer off this long launch from Julio Santos and while it looks good, it proved to be high. The pouring rain here doesn’t stop David McCauly from driving at the goal, but it’s also a bit high. Goal number two for the Yabra comes when Norman Nunez releases this blast that ricochets off the defender to tangles in the net. Kulture Yabra goes on to post the two-zip big “W”, to open the six-team playoffs in a positive way.
In the other playoff match staged on Sunday, Grigamandala and San Pedro Dolphins battle to a scoreless stalemate even through overtime until the match was settled four-two in favor of Grigamandala on penalties.
In cycling news, Paul Trapp won Saturday’s fifty, mile race on the Western Highway in unchallenged fashion. Ryan Rivero pulled up second, Andrew Ordonez third, Troy Burns fourth and Marlon Smith rounds out the top five.
