Reinas, Ballaz seal semi-final spots in Reinas Shield
Hosts Reinas Academy and Ballaz Academy claimed the two remaining semifinal spots in the Soccer Express/Reinas Shield Under-17 girls football tournament on Wednesday’s second day at the Hughenden Community Centre in St Andrew.
Kingston Football Academy and Proven Academy were the first two to secure semifinal spots on Monday.
On Wednesday, the hosts began their campaign with a comfortable 4-0 win over St Andrew Technical High School (STATHS), which was followed by a 3-2 win over Ballaz. Reinas led comfortably at 3-0 before Jahana Palmer scored two in quick succession for Ballaz to set up a nervy finish.
Reinas then thumped Genesis Academy 9-1 to become the only team with a perfect win record heading into the final four.
Ballaz with six points from two wins in their three games accompanied Reinas into a power-packed final four. They began their day with a 10-0 whipping of Genesis before being edged out 3-2 by Reinas but bounced back with a 4-1 win over STATHS to make Friday’s semis.
Despite their two heavy defeats to Reinas and Ballaz, Genesis, who journeyed all the way from Manchester, had a reason to celebrate as they surprised STATHS 2-0 in their single success of the day.
STATHS were the only team to suffer three defeats from their three games. They alongside Genesis will advance to the semifinals of the consolation Reinas Armour.
There were an amazing 36 goals scored on Wednesday, 13 more than the 23 scored on Monday as the goal scorers had a field day.
Tyesha Nelson of Reinas and Jahana Palmer of Ballaz were the top scorers with five goals each and are the overall leaders heading into the semifinals.
Olivia Ashbourne of Reinas scored four goals to be the third overall leader on the goal scoring charts.
Kharisma McLaren of Kingston Football Academy and Richeanna Barrett of Norbrook Junior Strikers, who are both on three goals each, close out the top five.
The tournament will conclude Friday. Action will begin at 9:00am with the consolation Armour semifinals between Next Generation and STATHS followed by Norbrook v Genesis at 10:15am.
The Shield semi-finals will follow with Reinas vs Proven at 11:30am and Ballaz v KFA at 12:45pm.
The Armour final is set for 2:00pm while the Shield final is set for a 3:30pm kick-off.
