by EZRA STUARTTHE BATTLE for soccer supremacy among the junior clubs continues at the National Stadium tonight.Haynesville, who played unbeaten to win the Slake Lime Zone with a record 14 victories and eight draws, battle White Topping Zone winners L & R United at 6 p.m. in the Arawak Cement Third Division championship play-off.Coached by Curtis Brathwaite, the Haynesville outfit comprise mostly teenagers, alongside the experienced trio of Ryan Brewster, Anderson Griffith and club stalwart O’Brien Smith.Griffith last played for Haynesville 13 years ago, while Smith was part of the Wadadah team which won the Masters Division Two title.L & G, a combination of footballers from Long Bay and Ruby in St Philip, drew their opening match of the playoff 1-1 with another St James side, Trents, which won the Concrete Zone.They had a golden chance to win the game in the dying moments, but Corey Boyce hit the crossbar after a quick corner by Jamar Burke.Heading the young Haynesville brigade is the impressive Coleridge & Parry striker Diquan Adamson, who had a stint at Sunderland Football Club in England last year when he was the lone Bajan selected from the Digicel John Barnes coaching clinics. Other talented youth players in the Haynesville line-up are Shamar Stevenson, Javon Jones and Jason Maynard. “The mixture of youth and experience has done us well so far, and we believe with this same attitude we can go all the way,” Smith told NATIONSPORT.The feature match will see Empire, with roving former Pride of Gall Hill left wing back Andrew Tudor, having their first outing of the Cave Shepherd Division 2 title play-offs, against Deacons at 7:30 p.m.Deacons drew 1-1 with a Brittons Hill Division 2 side, which saw regular Premier League striker Edwin “Ratty” Brereton in defence and former national player Rondelle Vaughan in midfield.The Ricky “Laker” Williams-coached Deacons team, with multitalented Dale Rudder assisting in the bench strategy, ran out of steam against Brittons Hill in the last 20 minutes.The dread-locked Terry Adamson, after giving his team the lead, should have also netted the winner but he needs more support from Jabarry Carter and national senior trials invitee Kadeem Atkins.Jason Carter and former national left back, Renaldo Fenty are the backbone of the Deacons’ defence and will have to contend with the goal-hungry Empire forwards.
