North Village 1 Paget Lions 1

Village held to a draw in opening defence of Dudley Eve Trophy

Champions North Village were held to a 1-1 draw by a stubborn Paget Lions outfit to start the defence of their Dudley Eve campaign at Devonshire Rec last night.

Amir Dill opened the scoring for the defending champions in the 49th minute with a simple tap-in from a Liam Evans’s cross only for Julian Carpenter to rise highest at the back post to head home substitute Kamau Leverock’s free kick for a deserved equaliser with only two minutes of regulation time left to play.

The Lions were particularly impressive late in the game, as they changed to a more attacking formation with at least four forwards bearing down on goal on every attack.

After a shaky start from both teams, Village were the first to settle down with their build-ups starting from the defence and penetrating through the midfield to control possession, however, it would be Shakir Smith — the danger man for Paget on almost every attack – whose cross should have led to the opening goal but Nelson Carpenter could only slice his effort wide from close range.

Shortly after, the overlapping Liam Evans had a give-and-go with Judah Chapman before lobbing Paget goalkeeper Omar DeShields but also the crossbar. At the other end, a long, defensive clearance put Smith through but Tahzeiko Harris intervened with a crucially timed tackle.

A good build-up between captain Diaje Hart, Smith and Nelson Carpenter brought Village’s stand-in goalkeeper and Bermuda cricketer Terryn Fray into action to block Smith’s shot with the rebound eventually rolling to the captain, who could only slam over the top from close range.

Just before the half, Village were awarded a penalty when Tiago Correia was bundled over from behind while dribbling for goal but DeShields divede full length to his left to deny the firm drive by Z’dao Dill to keep the game goalless.

Village picked up the tempo from the start of the second half and struck within minutes when Liam Evans made another run down the right flank with his low cross finding an unmarked Amar Dill in the centre of the goal for an easy tap in.

Bermuda cricket captain Delray Rawlins was introduced into the Lions attack in the 56th minute and had an immediate impact as he got off a firm drive forcing Fray to dive low to his left to save the goalbound shot before recovering well to block Kushae Hypolite from scoring the rebound.

Leverock, the retired former Bermuda cricketer, joined Rawlins as double Lions strikers in the 70th minute, which caused mayhem in the Village defence which led to his free kick and Carpenter’s timely header to level the scores.

Paget coach Antwan Russell was pleased with his team’s performance stating, ‘’These guys play with hunger. Everything I ask in training, comes out in the games. I am pleased with their showing today and I will take the result’’.

Stand-in coach Village coach, Calvin “Patches” Dill was also satisfied with his team’s performance stating, ‘’I think we played well since it is our first game of the season. We missed the penalty and unfortunately, it was some tired legs that led to the free kick but overall I thought we played well. Terryn Fray is my man of the match today as he did a marvellous job for us and in goal at that.’’