Santel’s vs Tex Mar Boys
Late Saturday afternoon at the Norman Broaster Stadium in San Ignacio, the Tex Mar Boys of Independence stunned Santel’s with a late goal deep in injury time.

After a good week of workout, Santel’s were in very good spirits, and were confident that they were going to get a positive result.  But the game had an interesting twist.  The game time for the return match was changed from 7:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

As a result, Bernard “Hijo” Linarez and Robert Muschamp did not play, because they are both Seventh Day Adventists.  Back in February of this year, while playing for the National Team in the Nations Cup in El Salvador, Linarez chose not to play in a Saturday match against Guatemala, because of his religious convictions.  But contrary to rumors, Santel’s head coach, Nayo Waight, said that he did not realize that these players were Adventists.  He said that he mainly wanted to use Mother Nature to his advantage, because he believed that Santel’s were in better condition to run in the evening sun. 

Well, the plan basically backfired, because Mother Nature did not comply.  There were too many clouds, and the sun was nowhere in sight.  Furthermore, Tex Mar appeared to be in better condition, as Santel’s ran out of gas in the last 15 minutes of the game.

Nevertheless, the match was heavily contested, as both sides tried to get the game-breaking goal.  Santel’s needed only a 1 – nil victory to advance, and thus brought down a lot of pressure, and really took it to the Tex Mar Boys.  But Tex Mar’s goalkeeper, Stephen Lopez, had a monster game, to preserve the clean sheet.   Tex Mar on the other hand, was not keen on settling for a scoreless draw.  Deep into injury time, after the 90 minutes of regulation had expired, their efforts were rewarded with a blazing grass-burner from Paul Linarez, which found the back of the net.  Seconds after, the long whistle sounded, signaling the end of Santel’s season.

San Pedro Costa Del Sol Nairi’s vs FC Belize
Well, it was not Black Sunday, but it was Sunday, nevertheless, at the Ambergris Stadium, as the San Pedro Costa Del Sol Nairi’s hosted the defending champ, FC Belize, in the second of their home and away series.  And, after a long week of uncertainty, Nairi’s management had somehow worked things out with their players, and was set in pulling off the huge upset.

This was by far Nairi’s best game of the tournament.  Nairi’s dominated most of the action, in terms of possession and attempts at the goal.  It was evident that FC Belize were playing a bit conservative, and trying to capitalize on their counter attacks.

Deris “Columbia” Benavides scored the only goal of the game in the 38th minute of play.  Instead of firing from point blank range at the near post, Columbia simply had the veteran goalkeeper, Charlie Slusher, beaten with a well placed shot to the far post.  But despite all the pressure Nairi’s brought down, they failed to score a second goal, which would have leveled the aggregate score, and thus force overtime.

It was a bitter-sweet reality when the long whistle sounded.  With the 1 – nil victory, San Pedro Costa had done the unbelievable, by snapping FC Belize’s unbeaten streak of 23 games.  But most importantly, they won the battle but lost the war by the aggregate score of 2:1.

The game, however, was not without controversy.  Just 5 minutes into the second half, Nairi’s defender, Kent “Bob” Gabourel, received a straight red, after allegedly hitting a player from FC Belize.  A heated exchange of words developed between Gabourel and Ian “Coco” Henry, who was on his way to administer assistance to the injured player.  Tempers began to flare, and the re-start was further delayed when both benches cleared.  When the dust had settled, both Henry and head coach Anthony “Willie Bo” Bernard were ejected from the bench.  FC Belize also finished with 10 players, as Shannon Flowers received a second yellow and subsequent red card in the 58th minute of play.

Revolutionary Conquerors vs HanKook Verdes United
Yesterday at the Norman Broaster Stadium in San Ignacio, HanKook Verdes United and the visiting Revolutionary Conquerors from Griga played to an exciting and dramatic 1 – 1 draw.

Dennis “Girl Problems” Serano scored a huge goal in the 9th minute of play, to give Conquerors the early lead.  This then meant that for Verdes to advance to the next round, they had to ultimately win the match, because of the away goal rule.  A draw was out of the question.

Verdes’ quest for the equalizer lasted almost an eternity.  But they finally leveled the score from a goal by Orlando “Leech” Jimenez in the 83rd minute of play.  In what was their longest 7 minutes of the season, HanKook Verdes United failed to score the game winner, as the game ended in the 1 – 1 draw.  As a result, Verdes was eliminated because of the away goal rule.
                                            
Wagiya FC vs Suga Boys Juventus
Also, at the Carl Ramos Stadium yesterday in Griga, Wagiya FC posted another convincing 4 – 1 victory over the vanquished Suga Boys Juventus.  It was just an elementary matter that Wagiya would advance, because of their 4-goal advantage going into Sunday’s match.

Wagiya continued from where they left off, when Harrison “Cafu” Roches scored his 6th goal of the playoffs in the 11th minute of play.  Just before the halftime whistle sounded, Gilbert “Hoof” Swazo scored to make it 2 – 0 in favor of Wagiya.

Going into the second half, Juventus needed first to stop Wagiya from scoring any more goals, and at the same time score 6 goals of their own, to at least force overtime.  Juventus finally got things going, when Alfred Anderson scored in the 62nd minute.  Unfortunately, that was all the scoring that Wagiya would allow.  And, just for good measure, Harrison Tasher scored back-to-back goals in the 78th and 82nd minute to make it 4 – 1, and thus put an end to Suga Boys Juventus’ championship dreams.