PHC Zebras 6 Hamilton Parish 1

PHC Zebras redeemed themselves from a disappointing loss last week to romp to an emphatic 6-1 win over Hamilton Parish at PHC Stadium on Saturday night.

Enrique Russell was in devastating form as he opened and closed the Zebras scoring on route to a hat-trick as well as setting up T’ysi Showers get on the score sheet.

Keishon Bean and Jaylon Bather were also among the goals in the demolition of their opponents, who grabbed a consolation through Che Lindo.

“It feels good to score three goals tonight but more importantly that we won after our lost last week, [1-0 defeat to Young Men’s Social Club]” said Russell. “It was nice to see things come together for us that worked on in training this week.”

PHC head coach Quincy Hunt was also delighted to get back on track after last weekend’s setback to Social Club.

“This is a good response from last week’s loss,” said Hunt. “We worked on the little things in training this week and they showed up in the game tonight especially in the first half.

“We shared the ball and knocked it around before picking out moments for that precise pass. Overall, this was a good team performance.”

The Zebras ran at their opponents from the opening whistle to score four unanswered goals in the first half.

Russell opened the scoring early after cutting inside from the left to unleash a low, right-footed drive which beat the outstretched arm of a diving Jordan Burgess to settle in the bottom left corner.

Parish had their first attack on goal on the half hour mark but Kion Knights headed wide when well-placed.

Russell set up PHC’s second when he outran goalkeeper Burgess to a diagonal through ball before composing himself to roll the ball into the centre of the goal for Bean to tap into an empty net.

PHC were finding it easy to penetrate their opponent’s square line as Russell again ran onto a defence splitting pass to pull back for Showers to tap pass a stranded Burgess for PHC’s third.

Russell scored his second and team’s fourth just before the half when Diondre Dowling picked out Showers who beat the offside trap after running from deep before squaring to Russell for another tap-in after drawing goalkeeper Burgess to the near post.

Despite a stern half-time talk from Parish coach, Sergio Goater, PHC scored within minutes of the second half when Dowling chipped the Parish defence to find the overlapping Bather who side-footed to beat the helpless custodian.

Russell then completed his hat-trick when he dribbled down on goal before side-footing into Burgess’ exposed right corner.

Parish scored a consolation goal when captain Macquille Walker beat PHC goalkeeper Quinaceo Hunt with a low drive only for the ball to bounce back into play off the upright. Che Lindo was hacked down from behind after being first to the rebound. He dusted himself off and planted his spot-kick to the right off a diving Hunt.

SCORERS

PHC Zebras: Russell 6, 43, 77, Bean 34, Showers 38, Bather 49

Hamilton Parish: Lindo 80 pen

TEAMS

PHC Zebras (4-2-3-1): Q Hunt 6 – D Usher 6, J Bather 6, N Furbert 6 (sub: J Ebbin 89min), D Smith-Lightbourne 6 – D Dowling 7, J Iris 6 – S Nisbett 6 (sub: K Abraham 64, 5), K Bean 6 (sub: J Douglas 77), T Showers 6 (sub: C Nesbitt 64, 5) – E Russell 8 (sub: R Hassell). Substitutes not used: Y Burgess. Booked: Furbert.

Hamilton Parish (4-2-3-1): J Burgess 7 – K Wade 5, M Turner 6, J Stowe 5, Q Outerbridge 5 (sub: J Bean 64, 5) – S McKittrick 6, Z Burgess 5 (sub: J Steede 74) — M Walker 6, J Bell 6, K Knights 6 (sub: A Foy 57, 5) – J Jones-Tyrell 5 (sub: C Lindo 57, 7). Substitutes not used: L Lewis, T Welch. Booked: Walker.

Referee: A Majors.