GRANGE Hill Alliance avenged their defeat in last year’s parish final and will now wear the crown as champions of Westmoreland in the LIME National Street Futsal Competition.

Grange Hill Alliance were beaten by Little London FC in the parish finals but were later selected as the wild card team for the national championships, where they were knocked out in the semi-finals by Smokaz FC in the LIME Street Football Competition.

However, the Garfade Johnson-captained team made no mistakes on Saturday as they came from behind to pound Twelve Street 8-4 in a mouth-watering final at Manning’s School.

Grange Hill Alliance pocketed $150,000 and the trophy, while Twelve Street, who were called up as a replacement for Negril United, will be counting their blessing as they took home $50,000 for their efforts.

Ironically, Twelve Street were the second replacement team to make it to a final, joining Woodland FC, who were beaten in Hanover. Both will remain optimistic of being selected as the wild card team for the National Championship to challenge for the grand prize of $1.5 million.

Johnson was ecstatic that through sheer determination his team finally got it right.

“We were always a good team and with the unity the camaraderie…we knew we were going to win because we came here very serious. We were down 2-4 in the second half with 20 minutes remaining and I told to the guys that we scored six goals in 10 minutes in the first game, so we can go out and do it, and there is no way we can lose,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“We used our performances last year as a motivation and we are going to work harder from here…sort out our flaws and come back stronger, because our intention is to go all the way this year.

“All in all, we are grateful that we came out victorious and we are going to use the money to make a donation to the (Savanna-La-Mar) infirmary…not sure how much yet, but we are going to discuss it as a team and then take it from there,” added Johnson.

His counterpart Christopher Wallace was also grateful and had high praises for the sponsors.

“I think what cost us the game is that Grange Hill was more prepared than us, but we still give thanks because we were selected as a replacement team. We weren’t in it, but we were determined and we got this far.

“I must say big up to LIME because I think they are doing a good job to bring out an old man like me and some more players to come play some good football and we had a really nice time. Big up also to Twelve Street and we are really thankful for this,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

What started out as a bright and sunny day in Savanna-La-Mar quickly transpired into rainy conditions as 87 goals were scored in 15 fast-paced encounters. The first round accounted for 47 goals, where Grange Hill Alliance opened their account with a 6-0 thrashing of Track Star.

Corner Strikers got by Muckily 3-1; Gully Banks Strikers outscored Golden Touch United 4-3; Negril Lynch Top Lions defeated Fiya Spartan 2-1; and Twelve Street came out 4-1 winners over New York Avenue.

Park FC, with former Jamaica College striker Akean Shackleford, stopped Harmony FC 5-2 and defending champions Little London FC hammered Corner Kicker 7-0, while Scorpion and Friends stopped Super Star 3-2 on penalties after playing out a 1-1 score line in full and extra time.

Grange Hill Alliance kicked things off in the second round with a 3-2 win over Corner Strikers; Park FC whipped Scorpion and Friends 5-1; Negril Lynch Top Lions blanked Gully Bank Strikers 3-0 and Little London FC were sent packing after a 1-4 loss to Twelve Street.

Park FC’s dominant run ended in the semi-final where they went down 4-5 to Grange Hill Alliance in an enthralling encounter, despite a hat-trick from Shackleford.

Ryan Gayle (13th and 22nd), Dane Spence (5th and 10th) and Leaford Pearce (2nd) got the goals for Grange Hill, while Shackleford netted in the 5th, 9th and 20th minutes with Marvin Harding (24th) getting the other.

Meanwhile, Twelve Street made light work of Negril Lynch Top Lions as they eased to a 5-1 win in the second semi-final. Michael Kerr netted a brace in the 14th and 19th minutes with the other goals coming from Terrence Ellison (4th), Oshane Hall (20th) and Anthoney Myrie (21st). Sanjay Stewart (8th) got the consolation for Lynch Top Lions.

With both teams making strong statements leading up to the final, the large crowd was graced with a nail-biting finale. Grange Hill started out more positive but were left to play catch-up after Myrie fired Twelve Street in front in the second minute.

Kerr then made it 2-0 three minutes later when he picked up a long pass and slotted home. Ryan Gayle netted the first of his four in the seventh minute as he pulled one back for Grange Hill, but Kerr wasted no time in restoring the two-goal cushion when he completed his brace in the 10th minute.

Ryan Gordon kept Grange Hill’s hopes alive when he capitalised on a bad pass by the goalkeeper Shawn Forbes and fired home from the middle of the park in the 13th minute. Christopher Wallace once again restored the two-goal advantage for Twelve Street with an 18th minute strike as they went to the break 4-2 up.

However, the second half belonged to Grange Hill as the Twelve Street unit began to tire and lacked resources due to multiple red cards in the early stages of the competition. Orane Gaynor opened the floodgates for Grange Hill with a 24th-minute strike and Dane Spence netting a brace in the 26th and 35th minutes.

Ryan Gayle capped off a remarkable day for himself and his team with goals in the 29th, 31st and 40th minutes.

The goal-scoring prowess of Gayle and Spence resulted in them sharing the top scorer award with nine goals each.