Boulevard advanced to the next round of the Friendship Trophy, as they beat cross town rivals, Devonshire Cougars 2-1 at Lord’s yesterday.

Second half goals from Khiry Easton and Clay Darrell put the home team in comfortable position midway through the second half, but they endured a few nervy moments at the end after Zari Simmons pulled one back in the dying minutes.

Boulevard coach Malcom Smith, was happy with the result and the performance, but was disappointed to see his team concede so late in the match.

“We are happy to make it through to the next round and I thought we played well today, but I am a little disappointed that we were unable to keep the clean sheet,” said Smith. “It’s something that we have been working on, because as a team, we already know that we can score goals.”

The first half started off rather quiet, as both teams struggled to maintain possession and lacked cutting edge in the final third of the pitch. The lone chance of the half came twenty minutes into the match when Clay Darrell swung a dangerous ball in from the right side, but Ian Coke was unable to put his first time effort on target.

Just before the half, Cougars were forced to make a change when Juma Mouchette limped off, being replaced by Guerrero.

The second half started off a lot livelier, with both keepers being called into action early. Cougars thought they had their break through on the hour mark, when Guerrero’s header from a set piece found the back of the net. However, the goal was ruled out as the player was determined to have been in an offside position.

Boulevard would capitalise at the other end, as they caught Cougars on the break on the very next attack. Goalkeeper, Lovintz Tota was only able to parry Coke’s effort from just inside the box into the path of Easton, who made no mistake with the rebound.

Cougars would then watch as Simmons’ glanced his header inches wide of the post after getting on the end of a Guerrero cross.

Darrell then put his team further ahead in the 70th minute when he got on the end of a long clearance from the defence. With no one around him, the striker had enough time to take the ball in his stride, and drive a powerful shot past the helpless Tota from close range.

Cougars continued to push and the hard working Simmons would get his reward in the 90th, steering home another cross from Guerrero.

The goal came too little too late and Boulevard were able to hold on to the victory and move on to the semi-final round of the competition.