Devonshire Cougars 5Southampton Rangers 2Devonshire Cougars opened up a four-point lead at the top of the Premier Division last night at Devonshire Rec. as Southampton Rangers suffered Friday night blues for the second week in a row.Last Friday, Rangers travelled to Somerset seeking a win that would take them three points clear at the top. Instead they were hammered 3-0 by the Trojans. Last night first place t was again at stake in this top-of-the-table clash, but again Rangers lost by a three-goal margin as Kor-von Tucker netted a hat-trick for the home team to make certain that Cougars will be sitting in first place over the Christmas break.Tucker broke the deadlock in the 10th minute when he drove in a low shot from close range. Minutes earlier Dennis Russell put a shot just wide as Rangers had an encouraging start. But it was the home team who scored again in the 19th minute when Jesse Seymour supplied a low cross from the left and Domico Coddington had the simple task of sidefooting home from inside the six yard box after the Rangers defence was stretched.Confident with the two-goal lead, Cougars continued to look threatening on the break as their pace unsettled Rangers who were missing four starters, goalkeeper Jason Smith, Janeiro Tucker, Jahma Charles and Kemon Simmons, from the team that lost in Somerset last week. And it got worst for Rangers two minutes before the break when an error by replacement Sean Perinchief enabled Cougars to score a third goal.Darren Williams sent a ball through the Rangers defence on the right side for Tucker to chase. The advancing Perinchief just beat Tucker to the ball but he miskicked his intended clearance just as Tucker pulled out of the challenge. Tucker continued on and slotted an easy goal into an empty net from the edge of the box.Rangers continued to battle after the restart as Milton Ferreira cut in from the right and unleashed a shot that Kioshi Trott in the Cougars goal saved at the near post. Both coaches were having plenty to shout about as Marvin Belboda aimed his frustration at his players while Dennis Brown, the Cougars coach, was quite vocal in letting referee Anthony Francis know he wasn’t at all pleased with his handling of the game.Four goals came in the last 25 minutes of the match as the sometimes ill-tempered affair had an eventful finish. The 23-year-old Tucker, the only change to the Cougars line-up that played to a 0-0 stalemate against North Village last weekend, completed his hat-trick in the 65th minute when, after Coddington failed to run the ball around the ‘keeper after being put clear of the Rangers defence, Tucker followed up and planted a low shot into the back of the net.But Rangers were still playing with determination as, Ezekiel Stoneham had a scorcher tipped over the bar. Then two goals in 10 minutes by Rangers set the stage for an interesting finish. Russell got his first in the 70th minute when he drove home a freekick from 18 yards after Cougars ‘keeper Trott was penalised by Francis for “taking six seconds” to release the ball, a call that had Brown out of his seat again.Then in the 80th minute Russell added a second goal to make it 4-2 when he got on the end of a long ball into the Cougars box as the defence was left flat-footed and blasted home from close range. But Cougars sub Makai Battersbee capped off an outstanding performance by the home team when he robbed a defender and slotted home in the 90th minute.Tensions almost blew over in the closing moments of the match when Drewonde Bascome was left injured on the ground after Callen Woolridge stepped on his shoulder after a challenge.