Elite, Sunset set up President’s Cup finals rematch

By Cayman Sports Buzz
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Updated: 20 February 2017

Elite SC players celebrate their semi-final win over Scholars International.

Elite Sports Club and Sunset Football Club booked their spots in the final of the CIFA Women’s President’s Cup after an entertaining evening of football at the Annex on Saturday, 18 February, setting up a rematch of last year’s tournament decider.

The match of the night was the second leg between Elite SC and Scholars International. Scholars held the edge coming in after winning the first leg 1-0 a week earlier. It shaped up to be a tense encounter with neither side willing to cede ground to the other. This resulted in a scoreless first half-mirroring what happened seven days earlier.

That set the stage for a pressure cooker situation with the league leaders and defending cup champions, Elite, desperately in need of a score, while Scholars would have booked their spot in the final is they denied their rivals the opportunity to find the back of the net.

With the increased sense of urgency coming out of the break, it took only four minutes before Elite got the goal they were looking for compliments a superb touch from Tyanna Jan that left Scholars keeper Kristina Seymour helpless as the ball sailed into the top right corner of the goal.

Elite SC’s Tyanna Jan (15) celebrates her goal with her teammates.

If the intensity was high before, it went up a notch with a berth in the finals on the line. Elite pressured but Seymour was there to save the day, as was her Elite counterpart Shanelle Frederick, who came up big in the 89^th.

Then came a goal, Shenel Gall capitalized when Scholars defenders failed to clear the ball from the 18-yard box cleanly. She pounced on the loose ball and knocked it home, giving Elite a 2-0 lead in the game and, more importantly, a 2-1 aggregate lead (see video below. She added another in the third of four injury time minutes to ensure the job was done.

“It always feels good,” she said when asked about scoring the winning goal. “It was a tough game but we needed two goals and we got the two goals, so I’m happy with that. It’s on to the finals.”

Meantime, Elite captain Shanice Monteith was pleased with her team’s showing against a tough rival. “My team did a good job coming back from last week when we lost 1-0, to have the mental strength to come back and have three goals. It shows the kind of character our team has and the fight we have to put in to get the victory,” she said.

Sunset FC (orange/black) beat Alliance FC with a 7-1 aggregate score.

Earlier, Sunset FC formalized their finals berth with a 2-0 win over Alliance FC. Needy pretty much to only stay awake for 90 minutes after a 5-1 first round win, Sunset took a 1-0 lead into the halftime break. Lauren Scott scored in the 31^st minute. Brittni Ebanks scored in the 77^th minute. Both Scott and Ebanks found the back of the net in both legs of the semifinals.

Coach Alan Purvis reflected on his team’s performance: “We were a lot more clinical in front the goal last week.”

“It was a bit frustrating. We created a lot more chances but we didn’t use the width as much, it was very crowded on the edge of the box and we kept playing into the crowd but we got the result…but, at the end of the day, when you’re in a cup final, you can’t be too disappointed,” he said.

Elite SC and Sunset FC, the top two teams in the CIFA Women’s League this season, move on to the cup final on Ash Wednesday, 1 March. Elite lifted the cup after beating Sunset 3-1 last year.