Hat-tricks by Omani Leacock and Kyle Gibson delivered a devastating 6-0 victory for Barbados Defence Force Sports Programme (BDFSP) over Claytons Kola Tonic Notre Dame in their out-of-zone clash on an exciting Sunday night of action in the Barbados Football Association’s Premier League.
Dames’ Zone 1 rivals Paradise had much better fortunes against Zone 2’s Mark’s Auto Spares Porey Spring United in their opening encounter at the Wildey Turf, winning 3-0 before University of the West Indies (UWI) Blackbirds survived a late resurgence by Empire to grind out a 2-1 success.
Fifth loss
Coach Renaldo Gilkes was forced to watch on in anguish as his youthful Notre Dame outfit succumbed to their fifth consecutive loss, having lost by a score line of 6-0 twice and only mustering one goal in those games.
Sunday night’s main event saw its first goal in the 19th minute through lanky centre forward Kyle Gibson. His strike partner Omani Leacock arrived to the goal party shortly afterwards in the 23rd minute with Dames’ defence struggling to regain their composure.
Raheem Sargeant’s deep cross was met by Gibson’s head five minutes before the half-time interval and that seemed to be the final highlight of the half until Omani Leacock won and converted a penalty in stoppage time, his second and BDFSP’s fourth.
Notre Dame would have hoped to stem the tide in the second half and gain some sort of a foothold in the game but less than ten minutes after the restart, in the 52nd minute, Leacock sidestepped two challenges to slot calmly past Dames’ keeper Ron Pile for his third hat-trick and 13th Premier League goal this season.
Gibson, who played on loan at Notre Dame last season, completed BDFSF’s conquest in the 63rd minute.
Armando Lashley’s two goals and an assist were pivotal in Paradise scoring a vital win to send them back to second in Zone 1. Lashley scored for the fifth game running and, in the process, his tenth goal of the season in the 11th minute and Chai Lloyd capitalised again on the opponents’ vulnerability just three minutes later.
Lashley arrived on the scene to bury his second of the evening in the 56th minute, leaving Porey Springs understandably dejected
Penalty saved
Lloyd had the opportunity to get his second when he was fouled in the penalty area with less than 15 minutes remaining. Porey Spring’s second-choice goalie Ryan Hope stretched out a defiant left hand to deny Lloyd from the spot, to reduce the arrears for his side.
UWI and Empire’s match started at a low tempo and the only pulsating moment of the first half was a terrific double save from UWI goalie Dwayne Webb, denying Daniel Calvi from a free kick and Jabarry Chandler from the subsequent rebound.
Shamari Mark broke free of Empire’s back line and rattled the nets in the 53rd minute and Jomo Harris appeared to have the win sewn up in the 88th minute. Shortly afterwards in the 90th minute, Chandler’s fiery free kick halved the deficit but Empire ran out of time before they could stage a recovery.
