BAA 1 PHC 7

PHC Zebras maintained their perfect start to the league campaign with an emphatic victory over a BAA team that was simply outclassed on the night.

Captain Cecoy Robinson was the pick of the dazzle, helping himself to a first-half hat-trick and adding one more in the second to ensure a comfortable win on the road at Goose Gosling Field.

Coach Scott Morton was pleased with his team’s overall performance as well as the individual contributions from his captain. “Cecoy did an excellent job of leading the team from the front on both sides of the game tonight,” Morton said. ”As a result, we were able to create a lot going forward and he was particularly clinical with his goalscoring opportunities.”

The visiting side took the game to their hosts from the outset, with crisp passing and good link-up play in the middle and top thirds of the pitch. It took only six minutes to open the scoring through Robinson, who ghosted in at the back post unmarked to finish a pinpoint cross from Marquel Waldron.

Moments later, Tre Ming had a chance to double the lead, but pulled his shot wide of a post after being played through with only goalkeeper Daniel Johnson to beat.

PHC continued to dominate, but would have to wait until the half-hour mark to get their second. This time Diondre Dowling made a timely run from the centre-half position and eventually played in Robinson, who outpaced his marker and beat Johnson with a low drive that went in off the far post.

Five minutes later, Kenneth Matthie was brought down inside the box after beating his defender to a through-ball. Robinson converted the resulting spot-kick to complete his hat-trick and give the Zebras a comfortable lead at half-time.

BAA were more physical in the second half and consequently received some early bookings, but the aggression did have some effect, as they pulled a goal back in the 65th minute through new signing Keishen Bean. The forward beat the PHC goalkeeper with a cheeky, low finish around a five-man wall to give his team a lifeline.

All hope of a comeback was dashed within minutes, however, when Ming made amends for previous misses, placing his shot into the top right corner after receiving a return pass just inside the box.

PHC were then awarded their second penalty of the game when Tyrell Burgess handled the ball inside the box while on the ground. Robinson stepped up once again, burying his shot to the goalkeeper’s right to make it 5-1.

At this point, the Zebras were in full swing and it was becoming a matter of how many. In the 80th minute, Ming was in on goal again, and was fortunate to see his left-footed shot rebound off the post and back in the net off the back of the goalkeeper’s head.

Jaheim Iris would round out the scoring in the closing minutes with a neat finish from close range to cap an impressive performance that put the defending champions top of the table overnight.

SCORERS

BAA

Bean 65

PHC

Robinson 6, 34, 39, 70

Ming 67

Johnson og 80

Iris 86

TEAMS

BAA: D Johnson — D Bascome (sub: M Brangman, 60min), K Bean, T Burgess, E Butterfield-Tankard (sub: A McDowell, 70) — N Gibbons, Q Lema, L Roberts, Z Robinson — I Simmons, T Tucker. Substitutes not used: A Corvelho, A Darrell, K McQueen, R Murphy, J Schroder. Booked: Lema, Tucker.

PHC: S Trott — D Usher, R DeShields (sub: M Lambe, 80), D Dowling, D Smith-Lightbourne — T Ming, M Waldron (sub: Z Ming-Wilson, 80), K Matthie (sub: N Edwards, 70), M Warren — J Iris, C Robinson. Substitutes not used: T Place, D Lodge, S Trott, Z Lee.

Referee: L Cann.