For­mer na­tion­al youth team strik­er Dwight Quin­tero scored a beaver-trick as Cen­tral FC made a re­sound­ing start to re­turn to the pres­ti­gious tour­na­ment fi­nal with a con­vinc­ing 5-0 thrash­ing of Su­per League out­fit FC San­ta Rosa at Wood­ford Lodge, Ch­agua­nas, on Thurs­day night.

Cen­tral FC, the re­cent First Cit­i­zens Cup win­ner, was heav­i­ly fan­cied to get the win de­spite the ab­sence of na­tion­al duo, strik­er Run­dell Win­ches­ter and goal­keep­er Jean-Michael Williams, both with the So­ca War­riors for the in­ter­na­tion­al friend­ly against Ja­maica, which was con­test­ed last night in Mon­tego Bay.

San­ta Rosa got off to a mis­er­able start when strik­er An­to­nio Au­guste was is­sued a straight red for ob­scene lan­guage by ref­er­ee Ce­cil Hinds.

El­ton John came close to open­ing the scor­ing for Cen­tral FC, when he smashed an ef­fort against the cross­bar be­fore 19-year-old Quin­tero made Cen­tral FC's man ad­van­tage count when he head­ed in a Jo­han Pelti­er cross in the 32nd minute.

Five min­utes lat­er, Quin­tero hand­ed last year's T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion FA Tro­phy run­ner-up, a 2-0 half-time lead when he fired past Du­rant from a Mar­vin Oliv­er feed.

Quin­tero quick­ly got in­to his stride in the sec­ond half, by scor­ing his third in the 64th from a Dar­ren Mitchell feed and three min­utes, the lat­ter found the tar­get him­self from a Pelti­er set-up be­fore Quin­tero re­turned with an­oth­er item, his fourth of the match five min­utes with an ef­fort that went in off the un­der­side of the bar.

A minute lat­er sub­sti­tute Keon Trim saw an­oth­er ef­fort smash against the cross­bar while Quin­tero al­so hit the post in the 82nd from the penal­ty-spot af­ter be­ing fouled by red card­ed Akeem Lynch in­side the 18-yard box.

With the win, Cen­tral FC set up a round-of-32 meet­ing with the Uni­ver­si­ty of T&T (UTT).

UTT got a goal each from Joseph Brown (sixth), Ja­mal Creighton (22nd) and for­mer na­tion­al youth strik­er Garvin Sama­roo (79th) to blank Coos­al's Las Lo­mas 3-0 in their pre­lim­i­nary round match at Madras Recre­ation Ground, Cunu­pia.

To­mor­row, the pre­lim­i­nary round will con­tin­ue, with Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League South Zone and Big-Five cham­pi­on Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege of San Fer­nan­do host­ing Tu­na­puna Ti­tans from 3.30 pm at Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do while on Mon­day, Su­per League club and Toy­ota Clas­sic quar­ter­fi­nal­ist Mal­abar FC faces East Zone SS­FL league win­ner St Au­gus­tine Sec­ondary School from 6 pm at UTT, O'Meara Road, Ari­ma.

re­sults

Thurs­day

Pre­lim­i­nary round:

Cen­tral FC 5 (Dwight Quin­tero 32nd, 37th, 64th, 72nd, Dar­ren Mitchell 67th) vs FC San­ta Rosa 0

UTT 3 (Joseph Brown 6th, Ja­mal Creighton 22nd, Garvin Sama­roo 79th) vs Las Lo­mas 0

fix­tures

To­mor­row'

Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege (San Fer­nan­do) vs Tu­na­puna Ti­tans, Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do, 3.30 pm

Mon­day

Mal­abar FC vs St Au­gus­tine Sec, UTT Ground, O'Meara Road, Ari­ma, 6 pm

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