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Monday, July 21, 2025

Rijssel guides W Connection to Pro Bowl crown

by

20140525

For­ward Ste­fano Ri­js­sel scored twice and set up an­oth­er, scored by Jo­evin Jones, as re­cent­ly crowned Dig­i­cel Pro League cham­pi­ons W Con­nec­tion wrapped up the 2013-2014 sea­son by win­ning the Dig­i­cel Pro Bowl ti­tle 3-0 against Po­lice at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo on Fri­day night.The "Savon­net­ta Boys", al­so the win­ners of this sea­son's Dig­i­cel Char­i­ty Shield, Toy­ota Clas­sic and FA Tro­phy ti­tles, claim­ing their fourth ma­jor ti­tle and fifth over­all this sea­son against an un­fa­mil­iar fi­nal­ist Po­lice FC de­spite a valiant per­for­mance by the "Law­men" goal­keep­er Adri­an Fon­cette. The St Kitts/Nevis in­ter­na­tion­al added, "First full sea­son (as cap­tain) and it's great to bring home five ti­tles. But I must give thanks to my team­mates for the re­spect and at­ti­tude they showed to me as cap­tain. I feel proud."

Po­lice and Fon­cette, a for­mer Trinidad and To­ba­go Un­der 20 goal­keep­er, held them­selves to­geth­er cred­itably for the first half against a side that boasts the ti­tle-win­ning pedi­gree but lat­er re­alised the su­pe­ri­or qual­i­ty and fit­ness of their op­po­nents.In a space of three min­utes in­side the sec­ond half, Po­lice, con­test­ing their first Fi­nal in 18 years, were trail­ing 2-0 af­ter sur­ren­der­ing to the fire­pow­er of Con­nec­tion.Suri­name in­ter­na­tion­al Ri­js­sel broke the dead­lock in the 52nd minute for a 1-0 ad­van­tage af­ter blast­ing low past Fon­cette and in­to the far net­ting fol­low­ing a lapse in de­fence by Po­lice.Ri­js­sel then be­came provider in the 54th minute when his cross from the left and in­to the area was ham­mered in­to the back of the net by mid­field­er (J) Jones for a 2-0 cush­ion fol­low­ing an­oth­er de­fen­sive lapse by the "Law­men".

But Con­nec­tion, the 2004, 2007 and 2013 win­ners, were lift­ed by a two-goal ad­van­tage and con­tin­ued to dom­i­nate the sec­ond pe­ri­od to­wards their fourth Pro Bowl ti­tle.Goalscor­er (J) Jones re­turned a goal-scor­ing favour for Ri­js­sel with a low cross be­hind the Po­lice de­fence in the 70th minute but Fon­cette pulled off a one-hand­ed save.Four min­utes lat­er Fon­cette, who is coached by his fa­ther Glen­non Fon­cette, made back-to-back point-blank saves deny­ing Con­nec­tion left-full­back Kurt Fred­er­ick, be­fore the St Lu­cia in­ter­na­tion­al lift­ed his third try over­bar.

Fon­cette made an­oth­er save in the 76th minute deny­ing (J) Jones, who al­so had wide ef­forts in the 26th and 89th min­utes.But on the 78th minute Fon­cette was hung out to dry, and Ri­js­sel com­plet­ed his dou­ble and Con­nec­tion's 3-0 score-line.

Sub­sti­tutes Chris­t­ian Viveros and Neil Ben­jamin Jr had com­bined on the right, be­fore the lat­ter sent a low cross that some­how made its way through the Po­lice de­fence to find a free Ri­js­sel, who hit past Fon­cette from the top of the six yard area.Ri­js­sel was de­serv­ing­ly named the Play­er of the Match, and al­though Fon­cette on­ly walked away with a run­ners-up medal, had won the hearts of many the showed up at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um to wit­ness the fi­nal match of the 2013-2014 Pro League cal­en­dar. Po­lice seemed very de­pen­dent on 38-year-old for­mer Toy­ota/TT Pro League Play­er of the Year and ex-Trinidad and To­ba­go in­ter­na­tion­al Trent Noel and Ryan in mid­field.And as ex­pect­ed the mid­field duo wasn't a match for a much, much younger and ex­ceed­ing­ly fit W Con­nec­tion, while lone Po­lice for­ward Jameel Per­ry was starved of the ball. Po­lice FC for­ward Jameel Per­ry, who scored a hat-trick against San Juan Jabloteh in his team's 4-2 quar­ter­fi­nal round and a dou­ble against De­fence Force in a 4-2 se­mi-fi­nal win, stood as the tour­na­ment's top scor­er with 5 goals. He did not score in the fi­nals.


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