Adrian Frater, News EditorWESTERN BUREAU:
CAMBRIDGE PRIMARY School registered the first win of the 2006 St. James Football Association/Victoria Mutual Building Society (VMBS) Under-12 football competition on Wednesday, when they registered a 2-1 victory over Barracks Road in the feature game of the season-opening double-header at the Lion's Den in Montego Bay.
The competition, which is in its 15th season and is being contested by 21 teams divided into four zones - three zones of five teams and one with six, will see the winning team taking home the VMBS Trophy and $20,000. Second place will pocket $16,000, third-place $11,000 and fourth place $8000.
LONE GOAL
In a Zone B fixture, the Cambridge team, which is returning to the league after a one-year break, scored through Oshane Pennant and Swesh Headley while Barracks Road, the beaten finalist in last year's competition, got their lone goal from Leslie Foster.
In the curtain-raiser, newcomers Irwin Primary created a mild upset when they turned in a dominant performance to hold defending champions Glendevon Primary and Junior High to a surprise 1-1 draw in their Zone A fixture. In fact, with a little more luck, the first-timers could well have won the game based on the number of chances they created.
"We are quite pleased with this result as we were able to go out there and do some of the things we planned to do," said an elated Irwin coach Andre Neil. "I am sure that having gotten a taste of what the competition is all about the players must now seriously fancy their chances of doing well."
SCORING OPPORTUNITIES
In the feature game, Cam-bridge dominated the first half but failed to make it count on the scoresheet as they were guilty of missing several scoring opportunities with the Barracks Road team seemingly incapable of mounting a meaningful attack. The half ended 0-0.
In the second half Cambridge finally got on the scoresheet when a swirling corner kick by Pennant 10 minutes after the resumption, eluded the goalkeeper's grasp and landed into the goal, making the score 1-0.
With Barracks Road finally finding their range and pushing hard to get back into the game, Cambridge doubled their lead in the 58th minute. Headley's deft dribble took him through the Barracks Road defence and his powerful shot flashed past the helpless goalkeeper, making the score 2-0.
Barracks Road struck back in the 59th minute when the threatening Foster finally breached the Cambridge defence with a dribble before finishing on target with a powerful shot, making the final score 2-1.
