The filtering of defending champions in the LIME National Street Futsal Competition continued on Monday as Pump House took over the reins as Clarendon parish champions with a 9-4 beating of Morgan’s Pass Football Club.

Pump House produced a supreme exhibition of skills in wet conditions, which was a delight for the large crowd at Mineral Heights. The Palmers Cross-based team twisted, twirled and enterprisingly played their way to the title and $150,000.

Their display of excellent organisation, ball movement and precision rated their performance as the best among the five teams which have so far progressed to the National Championship, where they will have a chance to win the grand prize of $1.5 million.

Pump House began their journey to the final with a 6-2 win over Scheme FC and later blanked Full Force FC 4-0, before eking out a 2-1 win over defending champions Young Blood in the semi-final round.

Player/coach Kevin Wilson said the team has been in operation for a period of time.

“This team consist of mostly high school students and most of the guys work; but whenever we get the chance to we always play together. Last week we won an eight-a-side tournament and today (Monday) we played as one family again and we are glad about the end result,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“From here we are going to go back to the drawing board, because the next round will be tougher and it will be much more than $150,000. So if we win that money the side can go much further and that is what we are looking forward to.

“But for now we are going to use this money to get some gear and footwear as we head back to training. We just want to extend our gratitude to LIME for putting on this competition, we appreciate it, so big up to LIME,” an elated Wilson added.

Meanwhile, Morgan’s Pass FC whipped Stubborn Kiddz 5-1 in the first round and defeated Pleasant Valley FC 2-0 on penalties after their second round contest ended 1-1 in full and extra-time.

They then marched into the final when they outscored Mineral Heights Strikers 5-2 in the semi-fianls. They were awarded $50,000 for their efforts and will now have to wait to see if they are selected as the best wild card team.

Captain Carlton Ellis told the Jamaica Observer that his team failed to stick to their game plan which led to them being outplayed.

“The team didn’t follow the game plan that we came up with and that is where we went wrong; so if you fail to follow simple instructions we will always have a problem. But I am still proud of my team for finishing as the runners-up out of 16 teams and this money will go a far way for the team,” he explained.

First round action commenced in beautiful sunny conditions and tallied 37 goals, which is the least number of goals scored since the start of the competition. Mineral Heights got the ball rolling with a 4-1 win over Flamingo All Star, while Africans United and Pleasant Valley FC scored 3-2 and 3-0 victories over All-stars and UNE Equip, respectively.

The other first-round contest saw Young Star going down 1-2 to Full Force; Young Blood got by Street Star 2-1, with Emmanuel Strikers stopping Link Up FC 2-1 on penalties after they played out a 2-2 scoreline in full and extra-time.

The tempo of the encounters picked up in the second round as the heavens opened. This sparked some amount of excitement and a lot of spills and thrills as some players sporting bizarre footwear found it hard to maintain their footing under the conditions.

Mineral Heights held their own and came out 3-2 winners over Africans United, while Young Blood displayed their high quality with an easy 4-0 beating of Emmanuel Strikers.

After the early display of their prowess, the grand finale was expected to be a treat and it surpassed expectations in providing 13 goals.

However, Morgan’s Pass FC lacked the skills, quality and organisation of the Pump House unit and was completely clueless as to what hit them.

Pump House wasted no time in getting settled and after a few efforts on goal, eventually opened the scoring in the seventh minute through a well-struck left-footed shot by Honel Burrell.

It was end-to-end action thereafter, until a sparkling give-and-go combination between Rohan Richards and Odane Davidson in the 13th minute opened up Morgan’s Pass defence which allowed Davidson to fire home the first of his four.

Davidson got his second a minute later with a brilliant stop shot which left goalkeeper Glenroy Williamson with no chance and they went to the break 4-0 up after Lloyd Richards hit a powerful right-footed shot past the custodian.

Pump House picked up where they left off after the resumption and went 7-0 up before Morgan’s Pass could settle. Hilroy Beckford showed off some nippy footwork and created some space to slot home in the 24th minute.

Davidson then got back in on the action two-minutes later with a cracking right-footer, before player/coach Wilson picked up a nice through pass and slotted home in the 27th after some dazzling ball movement which sent the crowd into a frenzy.

Knowing they had the game in the bag, Pump House began showboating which allowed Morgan’s Pass to get on the scoresheet. Milton Johnson (28th and 31st) and Dafari Lee (30th) got the goals.

But their celebration was short lived as Davidson fired home his fourth in the 34th minute, before Beckford put the game to rest with his second in the 35th minute. Lee then notched his second and Morgan’s Pass’s fourth just before the whistle in the 40th minute.

The competition’s next stop will be in Hanover on Saturday, before moving into St James on Sunday.