FOLLY Oval came alive on Sunday as 92 entertaining goals were scored in the LIME National Street Futsal Competition where Reggae Land Football Academy ascended to the throne as champions of Portland.

The atmosphere at the picturesque oval was nothing short of electrifying as patrons turned out in numbers to support their respective teams. In the end, Reggae Land Football Academy proved strongest with an 8-0 whipping of Youngsters Family in the grand finale.

The Breastwork-based team pocketed $150,000 and the championship trophy as they advanced to the National Championships and one step closer to the grand prize of $1.5 million.

Winning manager, Samuel Lamont, who is an advanced level two-certified coach, was buoyed by his team’s performance.

“We have a quality outfit and I have invested in this outfit over the years. My aim was to help with the development of football in Portland with the assistance of PFA (Portland Football Association), and I am very happy that we won

$150,000,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“We would like to win the $1.5 million and to be good ambassadors for the sport of football so that some of these guys can transition to the higher leagues. We have some outstanding players and we will use this to kick- start our mission,” a beaming Lamont added.

“This money will help us to capitalise the academy as well as reward the players. It’s now back to the drawing board for the national finals, to work on all aspects of our game and see how best we can analyse some of the other teams that we might go up against because we know it is not going to be easy,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Roberto Edwards of Youngsters Family felt his team was undone by poor physical conditioning of his players.

“Age took a toll on us and we ran out of steam in the backend of the competition. Two of our best players were out because of red cards, but we gave it our best shot and it just didn’t work out. We are happy that we came out with something, it is not a lot, but we are going to share it as best we can,” he said.

The action-packed competition got under way in warm, sunny conditions with the Caribbean Sea in the background adding value to the venue as a cool wind swept the mini-stadium.

The first-round accumulated 44 goals and was highlighted by the highly-organised United Strikers outfit that opened their account with a 7-0 win over JOP. Reggae Land stopped God-A-God All-Stars 4-0; Barbers cut down Neat Cut players 2-1, while FC Barcelona were 6-2 winners over Jervis Strikers.

In other first-round contests, Youngsters Family got past French Strikers 4-3; Maidstone Strikers handed a 5-2 beating to Eastern Strikers; HTOD FC went down 1-3 to CC Free School, while defending champions Super Boys made a good start with a 3-1 win over Fellowship Fury.

However, they were sent packing in the quarter-final round when they went down 1-4 to CC Free School.

Reggae Land were 5-1 winners over Barbers; United Strikers scored a 6-1 win over FC Barcelona, and Youngsters Family netted two extra-time goals to defeat Maidstone Strikers 5-4, after they played to a 3-3 score line in regulation time.

The semi-finals were expected to be mouth-watering as all four teams had earlier displayed their skills and ball-moving prowess.

But a hat-trick by Roshede Bald in the 21st, 29th and 30th minutes gave Reggae Land an easy 4-1 win over United Strikers in the first encounter. Deno Brown (17th) got the other goal for the winners, while Fabian Afflick (30th) got the consolation for United Strikers.

Youngsters Family then handed CC Free School an even more devastating blow in the second encounter as they came out 6-2 victors. Richard West (4th and 26th) led the scoring with Rennis Allen (17th), Renaldo Clacken (14th) and Tray Morris (12th) getting the others.

Danian Reid (8th and 19th) got both goals for CC Free School.

The final was deemed the clash of the gladiators as most anticipated a close affair, and after the first 10 minutes of end-to-end action, the game seemed destined for a close finish. However, the flow of the game changed in the 13th minute when Roberto Edwards of Youngsters Family unfortunately scored an own goal.

Reggae Land pressed on the ascendancy and went 2-0 up three minutes later through Roshede Bald, who skipped past the defender and fired home. Youngsters Family yielded to the consistent pressure applied by Reggae Land, continuing with Deno Brown who made it 3-0 in the 16th minute, then Dean Wilson finished off a beautiful lob pass from Bald to make it 4-0 at the break.

Reggae Land continued their goal-scoring feast six minutes after the break when Ryan McNeil netted his first in the 26th minute. Wilson later displayed some nippy footwork to get by a defender and complete his brace in the 37th minute, after which McNeil and Brown both grabbed a second in the 39th and 40th minutes, respectively, to put the game to bed.

Bald was named top scorer with seven goals.

The competition will next trek to St Catherine and Portmore on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.