A FLURRY of exhilarating local footballing action took place this weekend, featuring fixtures from the Sylvia Spinola Memorial Cup and the JFA ‘Willis Trophy’ Bowl.
Kicking off the action on Saturday were a smattering of men’s teams from various steps within the JFA Combination Leagues.
Les Quennevais Playing Fields hosted two matches as Dragoes de Jersey met St Ouen and First Tower United took on Trinity.
Having been relegated into Jersey’s second flight only last year, St Ouen showed their Premiership 1 experience over Dragoes with a commanding 6-0 victory.
Elliott Hughes and Jake Prince scored one each before the half-time whistle, putting the parish side comfortably ahead.
Playing freely in the subsequent half, the pair delivered once again. Hughes fired one more past the Dragoes’ keeper and Prince chose to one-up his teammate, with two in the second half.
With five minutes left, Michael Agrela drove the sixth and final nail into the Dragoes’ coffin, seeing them advance into a round two clash against St Clement O35s.
First Tower also coasted past Trinity with a 5-0 victory.
Dylan Rawlinson was the only player to draw blood in the opening 45 minutes of play.
However, much like St Ouen, the favourable scoreline going into the second half appeared to give Tower the confidence they needed to send four more into the green net, two courtesy of Thomas Le Monnier alongside Ruben Da Silva and Jordan Jones with one each.
Having earned their spot in the second round, United’s opponent was to be decided at St Ouen FC as the home reserve side were due to face Rozel Rovers.
Rovers’ Charlie Blair opened up the scoring in minute number 35 and teammate Joe Austin followed up 15 minutes later, pushing the away side ahead.
However, Kyle Hampshire had something to say for the St Ouen’s Reserves as he quickly replied with a goal of his own only 60 seconds after Austin’s goal.
The 64th minute saw Shane Carre level up the scoring at 2-2, though the home jubilation was shortlived as Spencer Gray put Rozel ahead once again, with an effort of his own the very next minute.
St Ouen’s C team were also thwarted by St Clement Reserves.
Two successful attempts from Alfie Queree, along with individual efforts from Taylor Roche, Alex Mottram and an own goal meant that only the first team from St Ouen remained in contention for the JFA Bowl.
Elsewhere, St Brelade Reserves ran riot over visiting St John Reserves with an 8-0 whitewash.
New signing Chama Hesborn made his presence on the field known with four goals to his name, while Ryan Le Cornu and Jack Gibson equalled Hesborn’s total with two apiece.
Wrapping up the Willis Trophy were two sides from the Combination’s O35s Division.
Trinity O35s and Grouville O35s both welcomed Jersey Wanderers’ and Rozel Rovers’ Reserve sides respectively.
It was not to be for Trinity as Wanderers coasted to an 8-1 win courtesy of a hat-trick from James Cannard, a double from Miguel Freitas and individual efforts from James Murphy, Rodrigo Chatillon and George Llewellyn-Salaun.
Neil Spacie was the only one to answer back for Trinity O35s, but the Grouville Veterans side had more luck over Rovers, with a 4-2 win.
Dennis Nkosi and Seb Barrow put Rozel 2-1 up in the first half with the only reply coming from Ross Gibson.
However, the Groove tightened up, and a second-half hat-trick from Gibson laid the game to rest.
Supplementing the veterans’ action in the cup, there were also two O35 league matches.
Echoing the aforementioned Grouville-Rozel game, St Peter O35s came back from a 2-1 half-time deficit against Rozel Rovers O35s.
Despite an early goal from St Peter’s James Jones, Rob Lowry and Seb Barrow struck back for the Rovers in the opening 45.
Jon Donald equalised for the Crosskeys on 65 minutes before Jones scored two more to secure his hat-trick and a 4-2 win.
Meanwhile, Milton Freitas, Roberto Da Silveira and two from Luis Vieira meant that Portuguese Football Club of Jersey O35s scored four unanswered goals against St Lawrence O35s.
The following day saw the Women’s Division take centre stage in the Sylvia Spinola Memorial Cup.
Rozel Rovers Women proved the dominant force over Sports Club of Jersey Women, the Rovers scoring nearly as many goals as they had players on the pitch.
Ma-Ya Larsson caused the most trouble for the Sports Club defence as she managed to bag herself a hat-trick, with Emily Le Page scoring a brace.
Emma Tyniec was the spark that ignited the Rozel offence in the 24th minute, with Ella Docherty, Marta Rodrigues, Tiffany Sundby and Charley Skinner able to claim one apiece.
St Peter Women against visiting Jersey Wanderers proved a nail-biter, however, needing a penalty shoot-out to separate the two.
Shannon Corbally and Chloe Pereira found the back of the net for the Crosskeys, while Sofia Rodrigues doubled up for Wanderers after 90 minutes.
A 2-2 tie after regulation saw hosts St Peter claim the plaudits after a prolonged penalty shoot-out, eventually edging past 9-8.
