By Dean “The Sportsman” Greenaway
Panthers Coach Stanny Francis Jr., giving instructions to his team during a game on Tortola
It was an ugly end to the first half of the BVI Football Association Men’s League Sunday on Virgin Gorda, with and abandonment, a forfeiture and one game being completed.
Scoring leader Romario Williams’ hat trick, led the visiting Panthers, (6-3-1, 21 points) to a 3-0 victory over the Sugar Boys, (5-0-5, 15 points) who struggled to field an 11, after starting with nine, then was reduced to seven, when Mohammad Kachour was injured in the 17th minute and Bradly Henry was also injured in the 35th.
The game was blown off three minutes into stoppage time, when Michael Castillo received a red card, leaving the Sugar Boys with just six players, not enough to continue the match at the Valley Recreation Grounds on Virgin Gorda.
Williams had broken the 0-0 score in the 37, then added goals in the 40th and 45th minutes of play, for his hat trick.
Defending league champions VG United (6-1-3, 18 points) walked off with a 2-0 clean sheet over visiting Old Madrid (1-0-9, 3 points). VG United took a 1-0 halftime lead on Joshua Ramprashad’s legger in the 31st minute. Sheldon Toney added the second goal in the 89th for the win, in the final game of the first half of the season.
In a rescheduled game between Avengers and Positive that was interrupted in the 12th minute on October 26 because of a scheduled 43 minutes power outage, winless Positive (0-0-10) forfeited to Avengers, 2-0-8, 6 points, when they did not travel to Virgin Gorda for Saturday’s 8.p.m. game. It was Positive’s second forfeiture, technically putting them out of the league.
