DEFENDING champions National Water Commission (NWC) whipped Sandals Grande Riviera, 6-1, on Sunday at Drax Hall to march into the final of the Sandals St Ann/St Mary Business House Football League.

NWC were paced by a virtuoso performance from striker Ricardo Reid, who slammed in four goals to lead the rout.

The ‘Watermen’ will now contest the final tomorrow at 4:00 pm at the venue. At press time, their opponents were still to be decided as Gran Bahai Principe and Couples Sans Souci were involved in the other semi-final.

The game started out at a fast pace with both teams playing attractive football. NWC, however, stormed to a two-goal lead at the interval, thanks to well-taken goals from the in-form Reid, who was a thorn in the Sandals team with his deft touches and pacey runs.

On the resumption, Reid slammed in two more to push the lead to 4-0, killing off the hopes of Sandals Grande.

Sandals Grande will compete against the losers of the Gran Bahai-Couples Sans Souci game in the third-place curtain-raiser at 1:30 pm.

Coach of the victorious NWC team, David Pryce, was full of praise for his players whom he said stuck to the game plan of moving the ball around, “playing patient football and exploiting the weakness in the Sandals Grande midfield and backline”.

Pryce said his team started the season slowly, but were now in full stride and were confident of retaining the title they won for the first time last year.

Losing coach Marvin Boyd said his team had a great run during the season but chose the wrong day to have a bad game.

“We played poorly, as the result showed,” Boyd noted, adding that he was nonetheless proud of the team and their accomplishments this season.