Victory lands Rusea’s closer to Frome

WESTERN BUREAU:

Rusea's High moved to nine points from four matches with a routine 5-0 victory over Merlene Ottey in their ISSA/LIME daCosta Cup Group B football game in Lucea yesterday.

Led by Deshane Beckford's hat-trick, Rusea's manhandled Merlene Ottey to come away with their third win of the campaign and inched closer to runaway group leaders Frome Technical, which have 12 points.

Champions St Elizabeth Technical High School returned to winning ways with 2-0 win over B.B. Coke High in Group E action, taking their points tally to 16, while Munro (10 points) swamped Newell 5-0 to remain with an outside chance of advancing.

Elsewhere, there were wins for Holmwood Technical over Christiana in Group G, while in Group M, Porus High edged Denbigh 1-0 and Garvey Maceo joined Glenmuir on 10 points, after getting the better of Bustamante 3-2.

Group A favourites Cornwall College's goalfest continued with a 4-0 whipping of Anchovy, which advanced them to the inter-zone round on 15 points.

Green Pond had the largest margin of victory on the day, hammering 10 unanswered goals past the Irwin High goalkeeper, to keep pace with the St James High - who were idle - on seven points.

21st-minute lead

Beckford fired the former champions Rusea's into a 21st-minute lead and added his second, Rusea's third, in the 50th minute. His third came five minutes before full time.

Kyle Anderson and Jovaughny Roache also found the back of the net for Rusea?s in the 26th and 79th minutes, respectively, giving coach Aaron Lawrence something to work with as they chase rivals Frome Technical.

"It was very important that we won today as it matters to me that we win the group. That means we have to win our last two matches to catch them, if they lose to Green Island," Lawrence said.

"We really showed today that we can play the game of football, after the disappointment of losing to Frome," he added.