Nigel Si­mon

Po­lice FC were all guns blaz­ing when they qual­i­fied for the main draw quar­ter-fi­nals of this sea­son's Dig­i­cel Pro Bowl with a com­pre­hen­sive 9-0 win over Pt Fortin Civic on Tues­day night.

This was in the first match of a qual­i­fy­ing dou­ble-head­er at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo.

For the Law­men, Eli­jah Bel­grave bagged a hat-trick while Ka­reem Per­ry scored twice dur­ing the lop­sided af­fair that al­so saw Kadeem Ri­ley, Dex­ter Al­leyne, sub­sti­tute Mic­ah Lewis and Ka­reem's broth­er Jameel Per­ry get on the score-sheet to set up a quar­ter­fi­nal meet­ing with last year's los­ing fi­nal­ist and four-time win­ners W Con­nec­tion on Tues­day Feb­ru­ary 7, at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, Cou­va from 8pm.

Al­so on Tues­day last, St Ann's Rangers got the bet­ter of 2008 win­ners Mor­vant/Cale­do­nia Unit­ed 5-4 on sud­den-death penal­ty-kicks af­ter a 0-0 dead­lock and 3-3 score­line at the end of the first five penal­ty-kicks for each club.

The hero for Rangers was goal­keep­er Cleon John who was in ter­rif­ic form be­tween the sticks with three saves in the shootout to de­ny Keron Bethelmy and Jameel Nep­tune, and then Ko­rdell Samuel in sud­den-death.

For Rangers Jameel An­toine, Shakiyl Phillip and Kyle Bartholomew scored dur­ing the first five kicks for each club, fol­lowed by Sedale Mc Lean and Kaz­im Don­ald in sud­den-death.

This af­ter their Rangers team-mates, De­von Mod­este (over­bear) and Che Ben­ny (cross­bar) were off tar­get.

On the oth­er hand, Ka­reem Joseph, Akim Arm­strong and Dy­lon King con­vert­ed for Mor­vant/Cale­do­nia fol­lowed by Seon Thomas in sud­den-death.

Cen­tral FC gets Rangers test

With the win, Rangers set up a clash with two-time reign­ing Pro League cham­pi­ons Cen­tral FC in the first quar­ter­fi­nal at Cou­va on Tues­day from 6pm.

Pri­or to that match, Cen­tral FC will hope to clinch a his­toric third league ti­tle when it goes up against San Juan Jabloteh, on Sun­day at the same Cou­va venue, with a win need­ed to seal the deal for the Dale Saun­ders-coached club.

In the two re­main­ing Pro Bowl quar­ter­fi­nals card­ed for the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo, Ma Pau Stars, beat­en in the 2013 fi­nal tack­les Club San­do from 6pm fol­lowed by a meet­ing be­tween ti­tle-hold­ers De­fence Force comes up against San Juan Jabloteh, a clash of two for­mer two-time tour­na­ment cham­pi­ons.

Speak­ing fol­low­ing the draw for the fi­nal tour­na­ment of the 2016/2017 Pro League sea­son, De­fence Force coach Mar­vin Gor­don was quick to note that just like last year his team will be kick­ing off the com­pe­ti­tion as un­der­dogs.

Gor­don said, "The turn of the new year has not been took kind for us in terms of re­sults in the Pro League, but we have a good core of play­ers who have a lot of de­sire to do well in this com­pe­ti­tion."

Stu­art Charles-Fevri­er, coach of last year's run­ner-up W Con­nec­tion al­so has his eyes set on go­ing a step fur­ther than last sea­son as his team aims for a fifth Pro Bowl. He said, "We re­spect all the teams in the com­pe­ti­tion and Po­lice have al­ready shown this sea­son that they are a team that can beat any­one on their day."

Speak­ing at the launch, Pro League Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer, Dex­ter Skeene an­nounced that apart from the win­ner-take-all $100,000 top prize, a new scheme will be em­ployed which will see the best de­fend­er, best mid­field­er and best for­ward, from the win­ning team, re­ceiv­ing a tro­phy and a vouch­er worth $1000 cour­tesy the Fan Club.

W Con­nec­tion, Cen­tral FC

get same kick-off times

Mean­while, the fi­nal round of Pro League match­es will kick off to­mor­row with a dou­ble-head­er at Cou­va from 6pm.

In the open­er, St Ann's Rangers plays Club San­do fol­lowed by Po­lice against Mor­vant/Cale­do­nia from 8pm

On Sat­ur­day, P Fortin Civic hosts De­fence Force at the Ma­haica Oval, from 5pm while the league will con­clude on Sat­ur­day with two si­mul­ta­ne­ou 3:30pm kick-offs as the ti­tle race heads for a pho­to fin­ish.

At Cou­va, ta­ble lead­ers Cen­tral FC (44 points) come up against third on the ta­ble Jabloteh (29 points) while at the Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Mara­bel­la, ti­tle chas­ing W Con­nec­tion (43 points) tack­les fourth po­si­tioned Ma Pau Stars.

Tues­day's Dig­i­cel Pro Bowl qual­i­fy­ing re­sults

Po­lice FC 9 (Eli­jah Bel­grave 2nd, 16th, 80th, Ka­reem Per­ry 44th, 69th, Kadeem Ri­ley 50th, Dex­ter Al­leyne 57th, Mic­ah Lewis 79th, Jameel Per­ry 90'+2) vs Pt Fortin Civic 0

St. Ann's Rangers 0 vs Mor­vant Cale­do­nia Unit­ed 0 - St Ann's Rangers won 5-4 on sud­de-death penal­ties.

Re­main­ing Pro Bowl fix­tures

Quar­ter­fi­nal:

On Feb­ru­ary 7:

Cen­tral FC vs St Ann's Rangers,

ABS, Cou­va, 6pm

W Con­nec­tion vs Po­lice,

ABS Cou­va, 8pm

Ma Pau Stars vs Club San­do,

HCS, Mu­cu­rapo, 6pm

San Juan Jabloteh vs De­fence Force, HCS, Mu­cu­rapo, 8pm

Semi­fi­nals

Fri­day Feb­ru­ary 10:

Venue: Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, Cou­va:

A vs D = M, 6pm

B vs C = C, 8pm

Fi­nal

Sun­day Feb­ru­ary 19:

Venue: Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, Cou­va:

M vs N, 6pm