BY KWESI MUGISA, Staff Reporter
Wolmer's Kenroy McKay (left) and Calabar's Miguel Malcolm tussle to win a header in action the Walker Cup semi-finals at the National Stadium yesterday. Calabar won the game 4-1. - RICARDO MAKYN
THERE WERE GOALS galore in yesterday's ISSA/Pepsi/JN Walker Cup semi-finals at the National Stadium.
Tivoli Comprehensive and Calabar High advanced to tomorrow's final with impressive wins. Tivoli blanked Charlie Smith Comprehensive 4-0 while Calabar came from behind to whip Wolmer's 4-1.
Michael Spence led the way for Tivoli with a double in the opening match of the double-header. The west Kingston team forced their opponents on the back foot from the opening whistle. The work of the wily Richard Stern, who had looked a handful from the start of the game, put the visitors deservedly ahead in the 18th minute.
Stern spun away to leave his defender for dead on the right flank and then struck a perfectly-weighted cross over the heads of two more on-rushing defenders. The ball was then headed powerfully into the back of the net by Spence, who gave Charlie Smith goalkeeper Dervan Brown no chance.
MORE ANGUISH
Another well-taken header would add to Charlie Smith's anguish 10 minutes later. This time a Jermaine Allen corner saw Ajani Crawford rise high to head the ball with plenty of authority over Brown and into the back of the net from 10 yards away.
Having not begun the second half as brightly as they did the first, Tivoli's third goal was against the run of play.
Spence ran on to a ball played long and away from the Tivoli back line. Caught short at the back, the two remaining Charlie Smith defenders were powerless to stop him as he darted in between them and fired a venomous shot past Brown for his second of the game. Substitute Shamar Johnson scored the fourth goal for Tivoli in time added on.
A Marlon Smith hat-trick led to Calabar thrashing of Wolmer's in semi-final two.
Despite taking the early lead through Shane Spragg in the 10th minute, Wolmer's wilted at the hands of a persistent Calabar team as they slammed in three second half goals.
Smith answered in the 33rd minute and the teams went into the break tied at 1-1.
DESTRUCTIVE SPELL
However, in a destructive second-half spell, Smith scored two goals in five minutes to put the game out of the reach of a weary-looking Wolmer's team. In the 50th minute he profited from a ball squared across the goal to fire home the go-ahead goal for his team and five minutes later he carried the ball down the right flank and again struck it past Wolmer's custodian Jamie Roberts.
Calabar's Lennox Creary, who looked dangerous throughout the day, then picked the ball up from 40 yards out, dribbled past a handful of Wolmer's defenders and blasted the ball past Roberts for his team's fourth in the 68th minute.
Wolmer's coach, Vassel Reynolds, believes fatigue may have played a factor in his team's poor showing. "We played three games in four days and maybe that had an impact on the fitness of the players," Reynolds said. "But we will regroup for the second round of the Manning Cup and the best of Wolmer's is yet to come."
Calabar's coach, David Hunt, believed fitness was the key to his team's victory.
"I told the team at halftime that if we played at the pace that we normally train with we would get them come second half," Hunt said. "We are a very focussed team and look forward to playing another good game in the final."
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