Guapo Up­ris­ing FC and Point Ligoure Unit­ed won the open­ing day Com­mu­ni­ty Shields in the De­porti­vo Point Fortin (PF) Com­mu­ni­ty Foot­ball League (CFL) at the Ma­haica Sport­ing Com­plex on Fri­day (June 20) night.

Guapo Up­ris­ing edged San­ta Flo­ra City FC, 2-1 while Point Ligoure got the bet­ter of La Brea All­stars on penal­ty kicks. The win­ners each pock­et­ed the $1,000 prize, spon­sored by the Muhammed Isa Foun­da­tion, for their re­spec­tive wins.

Kel­lon Williams scored the win­ner for the two-time CFL cham­pi­on Guapo Up­ris­ing in the sec­ond match of the night which saw all three goals scored in the first half. Che Ben­ny opened the scor­ing in the eighth minute for the Guapo-based team. The cham­pi­on of the first and sec­ond edi­tions of the league en­joyed that lead un­til the 18th minute when Dez Jones pro­duced the equalis­er for San­ta Flo­ra City.

Williams, though, found the back of the net in the 37th minute to put his team ahead again which they held on to when time ex­pired as there were no goals in the sec­ond half.

The open­ing match was a thriller as the win­ner was de­cid­ed via penal­ty kicks af­ter the scores re­mained tied 1-1 at the end of reg­u­la­tion time. How­ev­er, Point Ligoure came away with the win, 4-2 on penal­ty kicks.

Scor­ing for the win­ner was Shaquille Dublin while Mar­lon Phillip was on tar­get for the La Brea team in an ex­cit­ing open­ing night of the fourth edi­tion of the CFL League, cel­e­brat­ing Point Fortin’s finest foot­ball tal­ent while fos­ter­ing stronger com­mu­ni­ty bonds and en­cour­ag­ing the pos­i­tive im­pacts of sports in the com­mu­ni­ty.

League ac­tion is set to be­gin Sat­u­day (June 28) with a dou­ble-head­er at Vance Riv­er grounds from 6.30 pm.

Thir­teen (13) teams are com­pet­ing for the first-place prize of $20,000, cham­pi­onship rings, spon­sored by the Muhammed Isa Foun­da­tion and a chal­lenge tro­phy. The run­ner-up will col­lect $17,000, the third-placed team will get $15,000 and the fourth-placed team will take home $12,000.

En­trance on match days is $30 for adults, while 60 and over and chil­dren un­der 12 are free. There is al­so a group op­tion for adults, four tick­ets for $100.

Re­sults

Point Ligoure Unit­ed 1 (Shaquille Dublin) vs La Brea All­stars 1 (Mar­lon Phillip 40th). Point Ligoure won on penal­ties 4-2.

San­ta Flo­ra City FC 1 (Dez Jones 18th) vs Guapo Up­ris­ing FC 2 (Ché Ben­ny 8th, Kel­lon Williams 37th).

Match­es

Sat­ur­day

Venue: Vance Riv­er grounds

La Brea All­stars vs Cochrane Chal­lengers, 6.30 pm

Point Ligoure Utd vs Vance Riv­er Utd, 8.30 pm

Sun­day

Venue: Ma­haica Sport­ing Com­plex

Guapo Up­ris­ing vs New Vil­lage FC, 6 pm

Lake­view vs Fan­ny Vil­lage Utd, 8 pm