Bagga boots Layou at Victoria Park

Barrouallie overcame Layou on both occasions when the two arch-rivals met last Sunday night at the Victoria Park in the Hairoun Beer Invitational Inter Community/ League Football Competition.{{more}}

Played in front a very large gathering of spectators, Barrouallie, first up, gave their merry band of supporters much to cheer about as they took the National Properties Under-17 Division.

Kyle Edwards was on the score sheet for Barrouallie in the 21st minute and despite being a player down due to an ejection, Barrouallie doubled their lead in the 31st minute, through the efforts of Delano John.

The match then petered out into a battle for midfield supremacy, with neither team taking control.

Then came the much anticipated clash, as the two teams were at in the battle royal in the Senior Division.

Layou, with several national players in its line-up, got the ball rolling.

Shandell Samuel made good of a rebound in the 15th minute to give Layou the lead.

But the Barrouallie outfit, with some tactical personnel innovations, was able to level the score in the 30th minute.

Oalex Anderson muscled his way through the Layou defence, to send the ball across the face of the goal, leaving Shavel Cunningham to finish the move, coming on the blind side.

Two minutes later, Jomo Toppin’s persistence in pressuring Layou’s defender Greg Myers resulted in him booting his right foot shot past Kenyon Lynch, to put Barrouallie in the ascendancy and their supporters in ecstasy.

There was no more drama in the first half as it ended 2-1.

The second half, though, was played in two segments, as a heavy shower almost caused an abandonment of the match, which at the time was on a knife’s edge.

After a delay for about three-quarters of an hour to allow the rain to abate and water to subside, play resumed, with another twenty-three minutes remaining.

Layou threw down the gauntlet and attacked in numbers, with foray after foray, but the Barrouallie defence stood strong to hold on to the lead until the final whistle came.

An overjoyed captain of the Barrouallie outfit, Darren Hamlett, told SEARCHLIGHT at the end of the last Sunday’s match, “It is an honour to win this game; we worked hard during the season, we trained hard and tonight we came out and implemented what we trained.”

For winning the Senior Division, Barrouallie earned $10,000, with Layou gaining $6,000.

Calliaqua copped the third place when they defeated Gloja’s Central Kingstown 2-1, last Friday night in the third place play-off.

Calliaqua pockets $ 3,000.

In the Under-17 Division, Barrouallie gained $5,000; Layou $3,000 and third placed team West Kingstown, $1,000. (RT)