Week Nine of the BPFL tournament went off Saturday night March 19th, 2005 in a rare semi-pro Saturday night game at the MCC Grounds. Kulture Yabra and the Cayo Avengers played to another draw after playing to a nil-nil tie on opening day in Cayo. It?s beginning to seem as if Yabra is a team of two different halves.

They sometimes come out flat in the first half and then turn up the heat in the second half, or come out fierce in the first half and fizzle in the second half. In Saturday night?s game, they came out blazing and totally dominated the first half, but ended the half in a scoreless tie.

Then in the second half, the Cayo Avengers took their turn at dominating, totally out playing Kulture and scoring the game?s first goal 43 minutes into the second half. Locho Coye found Albert ?Talla? Vasquez from the left side and he sent a low grass burner into the back of the nets.

No lead is safe in this league. Three minutes later Panamanian import David Barahona was charged with a high kick inside the eighteen-yard box, and Kulture Yabra were awarded a penalty that Albert Thurton converted in the 90thminute for the 1?1 draw.

Sunday at the People?s Stadium in Orange Walk, the winless Print Belize Griga squad rolled into the stadium with high expectations and left with bruised feelings. They were once again the victims of defeat, losing to Juventus, 4-nil. Midfielder Deris ?Columbia? Benavides started it off in the 19thminute for the one nothing halftime lead.

In the second half, Donnie Tun split the uprights at the 22ndminute, followed by Raul Celis nine minutes later in the 31stminute. Christopher Hendricks turned off the lights nine minutes before the long whistle, telling Griga, not today – wait ?til another day. Chris provided the icing for the win in the 81stminute.

The win may be a costly one, as Oliver ?Lionheart?Hendricks and Kevin Pelayo were ejected, so they will have to sit out on a one game suspension, which comes up next weekend in San Pedro when Juventus faces the Seahawks.

Up north at the Calcutta Football Field, defending champs Sagitun took the long ride from down south to split two points after ending up in a 1?1 tie with the Calcutta Bulls. Three minutes into the game, Calcutta?s newly acquired Nahum Rodriguez took a free kick from outside that took a couple deflections before shaking the net. The ball deflected off ?El Gigante? Perez, then off Sagitun?s Hilly Muschamp, when the Sagitun star made an effort to clear the ball. Then the ball hit the upright and ended up in the back of the net for an early one-nil Calcutta lead.

Thirteen minutes later Richard Jimenez equalized for Sagitun, connecting on a right away shot on the assist from Elroy Kuylen. That?s the way it ended, with the Bulls getting a tie with Sagitun, becoming only the second team to do that this year. Sagitun had a 1 ? 1 tie with Kulture Yabra back in Week Four of the tournament.

Here at the MCC Grounds, Kremandala Lake ran all over the place and came up empty. Losing to a star-studded San Pedro Seahawk team, shouldn?t have the Lake players walking around disappointed. What they should be disappointed about is their poor performance.

Eight minutes into the game Dion Frazier got a pass deep inside KremLake?s eighteen-yard box. Instead of accepting the pass, Frazier jumped over the ball, allowing Emory Nunez to get it. Emory took a left-footed shot that ricocheted off Lake defender, Wilson Brooks, for an auto goal – the game?s only goal.

That didn?t go too well with Kremandala Lake. They appeared frustrated, trying long distance shots that were falling well short of the mark – easy pickings for Wilhelm Johnson, the Seahawk goalie. Almost every opportunity Lake midfielder/forward David ?Manu? McCaulay received, the defenses quickly collapsed on him and slowed him down.

The Seahawks, on the other hand, appeared relaxed in creating spaces and having the defenders come to them instead of moving forward to attack. When they pulled the defenders out, they made their move.

As if Kremandala Lake needed additional problems, they lost midfielder Dion ?Pussy? Flowers in the 26thminute after he received his second caution and was ejected. In the second half Kremandala were still feeling the effects of discouragement and confusion, being a man down, until the 70thminute when San Pedro?s Kent Gabourel, Jr., was sent to an early shower. Randolph ?Panta? Hinks had gotten past Gabourel, headed into the Seahawks? eighteen-yard box. Gabourel pulled Hinks down and was immediately showed the red card (second yellow) to hit the road.

Kremandala?s shining moment came when their veteran goalkeeper, Stanley ?Jordan? Reneau, stopped a penalty. John Ishmael Trapp, using his experience, had gone around ?Panta? Hinks and trapped him into committing a foul inside the box. Landy Pinelo was unable to convert as ?Jordan? anticipated correctly and deflected the shot for the spectacular save.

?Jordan? may have bailed out ?Panta,? but he was unable to assist when Hinks retaliated for an Orland Lyons foul. Both Hinks and Lyons were ejected.

A few minutes later, San Pedro Seahawk head coach, Marvin Ottley, was also ejected, for what the fourth referee claimed was disrespect of the man in the middle ? referee Victor ?Desho? Williams.

KremLake?s Ian ?Yellow?Gaynair must have felt jealous and wanted an early rest, ?cause he brought down San Pedro defender, Vallan Symms, after receiving an earlier caution card. He too was shown the nearest exit from the field, in the 88thminute.

When it was over, the game had six ejections – five players a head coach and a missed penalty. Marvin Ottley summed it up best at the end of the game, ?We didn?t come here to impress anyone or to score a whole lotta goals. We came here to win and we?re getting outta here with a win.?