FAMILIES FIRST St John Sonnets may be at the bottom of the points table facing relegation but they had cause for celebration on Sunday with a massive 3-2 upset victory over nine-time champions Claytons Kola Tonic Notre Dame.
There was also another suprising result as a defensive minded DirecTV Paradise held leaders Barbados Defence Force (BDF) to a goalless drawin the nightcap match of the Digicel Premier League triple header at the Wildey Football AstroTurf.
In the middle game, Cosmos fought back gallantly to earn a 2-2 draw with defending champions Weymouth Wales after Maradona Lavine scored his second goal in the 68th minute.
Wales seemed like clear winners when they led 2-0 at half-time through goals by Kemar Headley (22nd minute) and Carl Joseph (32nd minute).
But Lavine pulled back a goal in the 50th minute when he wrong-footed Wales’ sweeper Julian Mottley and pushed the ball to the right of goalkeeper Bentley Springer.
The equalizer was a lot more fortuitous as he shook off a challenge from Corey McCollin and was heading to goal, when Springer advanced off his line and kicked the ball on to Lavine, only to see it ricochet into his own nets.
That goal almost brought Wales’ midfielder Jabar “Buggy” Greene to tears as only moments before, he rushed to the sidelines and pleaded with coach Adrian Hall to make a substitution.
But the night belonged to St John Sonnets, who found a hero in diminutive midfielder Zico Mascoll, who scored the winner against Dames in the 81st minute.
Sonnets shocked Dames with some enterprising play in the first half hour as Kyle Trotman opened the scoring in the 21st minute and Mascoll made it 2-0, two minutes later.
The Dames stormed back to level the score at 2-2 as DeCarlo Jemmott (44th) netted just before half-time, while Aaron Leacock (73rd) headed home a rebound after Sonnets’ goalkeeper Bernard Howell parried a stinging free kick from substitute Kadeem “Buju” Atkins on to the crossbar.
That result and the draw in the next game between Wales and Cosmos, opened the door for the BDF to widen their lead at the top of the standings but they appeared to be over-confident, especially since Paradise were without their big Barbados central defender Barry Skeete.
Veteran Michael Brandon filled in admirably while the experienced Stuart Hall foiled many of the BDF attacks.
Tito Beckles superbly marshalled the Paradise defence, carrying out the strategy devised by the team’s technical director, Kenville Layne, who didn’t make a single substitution.
“We had a plan, so we played with six men behind the ball and attacked with four. We wanted to make them comfortable, so we gave them half the field and allowed them to bring the ball to us in the first half.
“We were playing a patient, waiting game and hoping to hit them on the counter-attack because we knew that if they attacked with six men, it would be suicidal. But I’m happy with the draw as it was painful watching the 5-0 loss in the first round,” Layne said.
National goalkeeper Jason Boxhill came up with a brilliant one-handed diving save to push away a shot from Rashad Jules,while defender Andre Bourne also made a goal line clearance.
Both teams were guilty of failing to find the nets with Paradise’s Armando Lashley hitting his one-time shot from a cross by Kent Hall into the side netting, while Trevor “Taz” Mayers rushed a right-foot shot and muffed the opportunity.
Mayers had another effort blocked, while Barbados Under-17 vice-captain Sebastian Hunte didn’t get a glancing header from a Kent Hall cross on target.
At the other end, Jules only managed a weak shot which was blocked by the Paradise defence, while the diminutive Tremaine Cobham also made a mess of a header. Kyle Gibson beat Jonathan Straker to another cross by Mario Harte, but headed over the crossbar.
