Football: Sunkiss’d First Division-St Louis climb into third position |11 August 2006

St Louis should have taken the lead in the opening minute on Wednesday as Gervais Waye-Hive easily shook off the challenge of Ted Esther but he blazed over the bar with only goalkeeper Trevor Bill to beat. Sunshine also went close in the fourth minute as Denis Zialor’s inswinging corner was missed by goalkeeper Eugene Valentin but George Ravinia failed to connect at the far post.

St Louis though were the better side as they dominated proceedings and in the sixth  minute Trevor Poiret got the better of Brian Souyana and sent a centre to Mervin Mathiot who connected with a volley, but goalie Bill deputizing for Vincent Euphrasie parried the ball into corner.

St Louis opened the scoring in the eight minute of play as Poiret cut inside Souyana and his shot came off the defender’s hand. Refree Jean-Claude Labrosse awarded a penalty and Jonathan Bibi sent goalie Bill the wrong way for a 1-0 score.

St Louis fazed off Sunshine’s resistance as they scored a second goal in the 33rd minute as Don Laramée lost out to Kenneth Khan who laid the ball to Achille Henriette whose cracking shot crashed in the far bottom corner.

St Louis secured the victory in the 55th minute when Khan’s cross was missed by Waye Hive, but Mathiot was on hand to tap it in at the far post to make it 3-0.

Sunshine rallied to try and salvage something from the match and in the 88th minute they finally scored a consolation goal as Ravinia fed Captain Denis Barbé who slotted the ball past goalie Valentine for 1-3 score.

St Louis looked tired as the match drew to a close and at times the likes of Waye Hive, Khan and Henriette were over elaborate in their passing which put their defense under a lot of pressure as they gave away the ball too easily.

In another league match played on Wednesday, Anse Reunion added to defending champion La Passe’s misery with a hard fought victory on La Digue. Malgassy Firinga Fahidanny scored the all-important goal in the first half to help Coach Vojo Gardasevic put one over his former club and propel them into second position with four points behind league leaders St Michel.

R.J.L.