Photo: Orlando Stewart passes out of midfield for Boys Town against Lucea FC in the FLOW Champions Cup on Thursday. Boys Town won the game 5-3 on penalties
The beauty of the FLOW Champions Cup is that it creates a number of David vs. Goliath situations and one such situation on Thursday was the matchup between Boys Town FC and Lucea FC at Collie Smith Drive.
The game which was decided on penalty kicks, almost turned out to be a story for the bars for the rest of the season, as the Hanover based team pushed the former premier league champions all the way in a fearless, if not polished performance.
Playing like a team with nothing to lose the underdogs jumped on their more illustrious opponents early and dominated possession as they were quicker to the ball in midfield. Suffering from an obvious hangover because of their Monday Night premier league win over Humble Lion, the Red Brigade took more than twenty minutes to get into the game as misplaced passes highlighted their play in midfield and in attack.
While the Andrew Price coached team was struggling to get things together, Lucea striker Jamie Ramsay was putting himself about and trying to create opportunities for his team. In fact he should have put his team ahead after just 8 minutes but squandered the chance after Boys Town goalkeeper Leon Goffe misplaced a pass straight to him.
Despite their best efforts, Lucea failed to create any clear cut opportunites in the first half. The home team gradually took over the game and were having a lot of joy down the left flank but failed to produce the telling cross that would break the deadlock. The best chance of the first 45 minutes fell to Boys Town’s Shamar Nicholson whose header went wide of Anson Donalds’s near post four minutes before the break.
Less than ten minutes into the second half, Lucea should have taken the lead. Dwayne Smith stole in between two Boys Town defenders but fired his shot high over the crossbar with Goffe and the goal at his mercy.
On exactly sixty minutes Boys Town had a chance to grab the lead. After a frantic effort to clear their lines from a corner kick, the hosts broke down the left flank on a swift counter attack but Nicholson, who was having a nightmare after his heroics on Monday in his debut game, shot wildly and watched as his effort flew into row Z.
Two minutes later Marvin Stewart tried his luck from distance but his effort was always going wide of the target. The hosts were applying the pressure as they sought the game’s opening goal. Nine minutes from the end Nicholson who was being given lots of time and space on the left, had another sighter at goal but his tame effort was easily handled by Donalds.
With less than five minutes left in regulation time, veteran Garfield Gillespie had the chance to win it for Boys Town but he somehow managed to miss a header from eight yards out.
Two minutes into stoppage time Boys Town had another chance to end the contest when they had another breakaway against a tiring Lucea defence but Nicholson shot at Donalds’s near post, while three of his teammates waited inside the box for a cross that never came.
Neither team was able to find the back of the net in extra time and a number of the Lucea players went down with cramps, no doubt a result of the long journey for the game.
Boys Town took first strike in the penalty shootout and all their five kickers scored while the first kicker for Lucea, Emil Thomas, saw his shot saved by Goffe as Boys Town moved on with a 5-3 win.
Results from other games played on the day were: UWI 0-2 Sporting Central Academy, Bucknor United 0-3 Granville FC, St. Georges 0-4 Tivoli Gardens FC, Lewis Strikers 0-1 Reno FC.
The draw for the next round will take place on Friday.
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