One Love claws back, holds unbeaten Panthers to a 2-2 draw

By Dean “The Sportsman” Greenaway

Lion Heart’s Shaundee Palmer, left, defends against hsi Rebels counterpart

One Love tied unbeaten Panthers at 2-2, while on Virgin Gorda, defending champs VG United suffered their second home loss against uneaten Islanders, highlighting weekend play.  

Romario Williams had his second successive brace with goals in the 11^th and 13^th minute, giving the Panthers a short-lived 2-1 lead they would carry into halftime, after Dwayne Smith scored for One Love in the 16^th minute. After both teams did not convert their second half chances, Tashan Wallace scored from a penalty kick in the 77^th minute as One Love tied the game at 2-2.

Panthers coach Stanny Francis Jr., said that it wasn’t the type of game they expected to play. “Absolutely not. We beat our own selves,” he told Island Sun Sports. “Basically, we didn’t play our style of football. A lack of composure meant we weren’t cohesive enough. That was our downfall.”

One Love coach Javon Carty said it was a very tense game after Mervin Dainty committed a serious foul in the first half and was given a red card. “We had to change the formation, some of the players, but 2-2, can’t beat that,” he said, noting that after they went down to 10 men, he asked the players to give all that they could. “Once they got tired, we would have made the changes, but once they were out there, give 100% and they did just that.”

Francis Jr. said his Panthers are missing some key players but One Love fought for it. “We didn’t fight enough. We didn’t want it enough and that was the result,” he said. “It was down to us not playing our style and being composed on the ball. One Love deserved the draw. It feels like a loss, but it is a good draw. They showed passion. They showed fight. They showed character, we didn’t and they took it.”

Lion Heart’s Treshorn Pope scored in the 85^th minute to settle for a 2-2 draw with Rebels, who led from the first half, after a 12^th minute goal by Conan Lockhart and a Claudius Felix’s own goal in the 18^th. Lion Heart’s Cee Jay Lampart scored in the 17^th, during a six minute scoring flurry.

“It’s a young team and experience is something that’s lacking and they’ll get that the more they play,” Rebels coach Morris Mark said. “But they showed a lot of heart out there as a young team, working as hard as they could.”

Lion Heart’s coach Lenroy “Left” Henry, said that Lion Heart didn’t capitalize on their chances. “We lapsed a lot in the defense and we weren’t pressuring enough even though we had more possessions in the game and more chances,” Henry noted. “We weren’t finishing at all from all the chances wwe had

On Virgin Gorda, defending champs VG United suffered their second home loss of the season, when unbeaten Islanders used Charles Bonnick’s brace for a 2-1 victory. After a scoreless first half, Bonnick gave Islanders the lead in the 59^th minute, then added an insurance goal in the 86^th. VG United’s Quelahni Nickie scored three minutes into stoppage time, avoiding a clean sheet.

Also on Virgin Gorda, in a battle between winless teams, the Virgin Gorda Avengers will put their 24-game losing streak on the line in December, after Livermore Harris scored eight minutes in for their 1-0 lead, during the match that was interrupted 12 minutes before the end of regulation, because of a scheduled power outage, that lasted 46 minutes.

After being the top scorer in Grenada’s seven wickets loss to Vikings in the BVICA Peter Haycraft Ten10 league, Derrol Redhead returned to Virgin Gorda and scored Sugar Boys first goal in the 39^th minute, during a 2-1 victory over Old Madrid. Devante Samuel gave Sugar Boys a 2-0 lead they carried deep into the second half, when he scored in the 41^st. Richard Welcome had Old Madrid’s goal in the 82^nd.