James Adderley’s weekend sports update
Good evening, I’m James Adderley and this is Sports Monday.
Week 3 in the PLB brought a monster show Saturday night to Capital City where the Belmopan Bandits hosted Police United a ball club looking to re-discover its swagger after a disappointing start to the 2013 semi-pro football season. However, it’s a moment fraught with danger for the Police when David trap curls this set piece to Ian Gaynair who just couldn’t keep this ball on frame. Nevertheless, we’re at the 25th minute when Daniel Jimenez launches this set piece from outside the 18 to find Amin August Junior who heads it past goalkeeper, Woodrow West, to give Police United the lead. Of course, the defending champions, Bandits roar back. Dennis Serano splits the Police defence with this perfect pass to Jerome James who unleashes this bomb on Japhet Young that ties the ballgame at 1-apiece at the 40th minute.
Folks, we’ve just 5 minutes into 2nd half action when Danny Jimenez picks up this loose ball inside the box to punch this ball at the far post as Police United regains the lead in the 2-1 score. The Bandit then looks for the equalizer off this set piece triggered by their captain, David Trapp, who isn’t too far off. It’s a tense ballgame now between archrivals at the 82nd minute when Ian Gaynair finds Jacinto Bermuda and his push to the right side is the game winner as Belmopan Bandits picks up the 3-2 win for a perfect 3 and 0 start to the season while Police falls to 1 and 2.
In other action around the league, Placencia Assassins picks up their 1st season win with a 2-1 win over Verdes FC, San Felipe Barcelona made it 2 wins in a row by blanking San Ignacio 2-zip while FC Belize followed suit by burning the B.D.F. in a 1-zip scorcher at the MCC Grounds. Looking to Week 4, we find 2 matches for Saturday, the second of March. The police will play host to San Ignacio at the MCC Grounds and at the Marshalleck Stadium, Verdes holds the fort against FC Belize. On Sunday at 3:30 p.m. at the Norman Broaster Stadium, the B.D.F. will host Belmopan Bandits and at the people’s Stadium, San Felipe Barcelona takes on Placencia. In the meantime, the standings after Week 3 finds Belmopan Bandits with a perfect 9 points from a 3 and 0 record. The B.D.F., San Felipe and FC Belize all show 6 points apiece in that order. Police United, San Ignacio and Placencia have 3 points apiece while Verdes is set to win a ballgame in this 2013 campaign.
Turning to the cycling scene, Cassa’s Saturday open race saw 24 riders suit up for the 42.2 mile race from Leslie’s Imports to Boom cut-off and back. The first big move of the ride comes when David Henderson and Allen Castillo try to leave the pelathon behind but it would be the Santino rider to claim the premie at mile 10. The 2 continue to dominate at the Hattieville turnaround. And would be the 1st to arrive at the turnaround. Of course, the pelathon some 30 seconds off the pace remain striking distance as they brace themselves for the run at the finish line. The duo continues their partnership on the way back through Hattieville.
However, Allen Castillo of Benny’s Megabytes takes off on a solo flight after that. And here he is grabbing the station prize at mile 10 on the return. At the Police checkpoint, it’s still Castillo as the solitary leader. The chase bunch would never catch him as Allen Castillo claims the win in 1 hr. 50 mins. 18 seconds. Twenty-two seconds later, Leroy Cassasola of Santino’s steps out for 2nd place while Erwin Middleton and Geon Henderson, both of C4 of Belmopan, finish 3rd and 4th, respectively. Henry Moreira, Kenroy Gladden and Ernest Meighan finished 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Meanwhile, Sunday’s 80 mile race sponsored by Orson Butler and Deon Leslie say David Henderson of Santino’s post the big win forcing Ron Vasquez into 2nd and Brandon Cattouse into 3rd. Giovanni Lovell of Telemedia took the Junior category and Jose Choto of belikin won the masters class.
Meanwhile folks, the 32nd edition of the Smart Belmopan Cycle Classic comes up on March 10th. Ron Vasquez, who rode on a solo flight of 24 miles,0 goes in as defending champion and Kirah Eiley is the defending female champion going in. stay tuned as things heat up as the cyclists ready themselves for the 2013 Holy Saturday Cross Country Classic.
In table tennis news, Harim Ochaeta beat Fabio Carballo twice to take the 18 and under championship Saturday inside the Belize Elementary Auditorium. Fabio Carballo, however, beat Matthew usher to claim the under 15 title and as the under 12 class is Bjourne Gabourel grabbing the title away from Alexis Tun.
