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TORTOLA — Omari Simmons scored in the first minute of the game and Joel Mars in the 19th as a British Virgin Islands under-20 boys soccer team fended off their counterparts from St. Thomas’ Massey Soccer Academy 2-1 on Saturday.
Simmons scored in the opening minute of the match, while Mars’ goal came in the 19th minute as the BVI U-20s took a 2-0 lead into the halftime break.
Massey Academy’s U-20 squad broke the shutout late in the second half on Gabriel King’s goal 35 minutes into the period.
“We came expecting to win and BVI came out pretty good and we conceded in the first seconds of the game and from then, we came back, but the turf, the sun, aren’t helping out our players, we’re accustomed to play on grass,” Massey Academy coach Dale Richards.
“We made quite a few mistakes with our passes because of the turf — not hitting the ball hard enough — but beyond that, it was a good game, I enjoyed it. We’re looking forward to going to Punta Cana (Dominican Republic for a tournament) and see if we can get about two BVI guys to accompany us, where we can have unity between both islands.”
BVI U-20 Coach Clinton “Tinnie” Percival said the game gave them an opportunity to exhibit the things they have been practicing for a while.
“We need to be doing this more because the competitiveness of the team is really low and we need to get back that competitive edge, but it’s all about seeing what they can give us right now and moving to the next level,” he said. “These are the types of games we want to be playing on a regular basis. So for me, this was really good. We missed some chances, but that’s how it is.”
In an earlier match, the BVI under-12 boys beat Massey Academy’s U-12s 6-0. Joel Gilford had a hat trick. Other goals came from Myles Penn, Emery Jones and Ricardo Blair.
Dean Greenaway