James Adderley has sports

Good evening, I’m James Adderley and here’s a fresh dish of Sports Monday. CONCACAF’s championship football tournament brought Costa Rica’s Alajuela to the M.C.C. Grounds for yesterday’s monster clash with Belize City’s Acros, one of the 2 national teams participating in this year’s competition.

Despite the advertised game time of 3:30, the open whistle blew at 3 p.m. which caused us to miss the first goal scored by Costa Rica, but thanks to the Costa Ricans we have images of that first goal and you can’t blame John Brooks. The visitors stay on the attack when #12 swings around in heavy traffic to unleash a left foot that is corralled by goalkeeper John Brooks. Acros shows some offensive inclination when Raul “El Coco” Gonzalez finds David “Manu” McCauly but his splice is pushed over the crossbar. McCauly finds Landi Pinelo who launches a right foot rightaway bomb that inches over the crossbar. Landi Pinelo deals to the streaking David McCauley, a moment’s delay for control and then launches a left foot that ties the ballgame for Belize just before intermission and the M.C.C. Grounds comes alive.

Immediately into second half, Acros has the opportunity to take the lead when Landi Pinelo deals but McCauly misjudges the pace of the pelota. The bicycle kick by the Costa Rican striker almost takes Raul Gonzalez out the ball game but the real damage occurs behind this play as Johnny Cubero, who crashes with goalkeeper John Brooks, winds up with a broken foot and has to be stretchered away. He’ll be out for 6 months.

But back to the action; Landi Pinelo gets an open shot at goal but somehow Pinelo fails to apply the power needed to score at this level. Eighteen year old Alexander Castro mounts an individual effort that turns 2 Belizean defenders around and he smashes a right for his first international goal to give Alajuela the 2-1 lead. A few minutes later Landi Pinelo gets a shot to tie the ballgame but the Costa Rican goalkeeper comes up with a nice save to preserve the 2-1, Alajuela win. Acros has now lost 2 in a row and will travel to El Salvador Wednesday for a date with F.A.S.

In other football news the B.F.L. concluded the semi-final round of the playoffs Saturday when Juventus handed Sagitun a 6-1 blast at the People’s Stadium in Orange Walk. Juventus and Corozal’s La Victoria begin the championship series on March 28th.

Now here are the volleyball scores from Saturday’s schedule at the City Centre: In the female opener, Little Stars got past Lady Scorpions 25-19, 27-25. On the male side, Continental Flyers dumped the B.D.F. 25-19, 25-21; Scorpions stung Seidy’s Rookies 25-18, 25-12; Spikers got past S.J.C. Sagitun 25-15, 25-22, and it was a battle between Mirab and Mirab Kenmore. Mirab got past Mirab Kenmore 20-25, 25-13, 15-07.

Hey folks that’s our show for tonight. We invite you back same time, same place. Jah over all. I’m James Adderley.