Nigel Si­mon

Na­tion­al duo Jo­evin Jones and Jer­rel Brit­to scored two goals each as two-time win­ner and de­fend­ing Toy­ota Clas­sic cham­pi­on, Di­recTV W Con­nec­tion, kicked off its ti­tle de­fence with a 5-0 thump­ing of Su­per League out­fit De­fence Force.

This was in the fea­ture match of a dou­ble-head­er at the Man­nie Ramjohm Sta­di­um, Mara­bel­la on Fri­day night. Out-of-favour na­tion­al mid­field­er Shah­don Win­ches­ter opened the scor­ing as ear­ly as the third minute for the "Savonet­ta Boys" while Jones in the 26th minute and Brit­to, five min­utes lat­er added one each for a 3-0 half-time lead.

Brit­to com­plet­ed his dou­ble in the 63rd minute while Jones got his dou­ble a minute be­fore full-time for W?Con­nec­tion to com­plete a com­fort­able 5-0 vic­to­ry and a last-eight en­counter with Su­per League leader, WASA, who like West Side Su­per Starz and Stoke­ly Vale pulled off shock wins.

At the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo, the "Wa­ter Boys" as WASA are known edged Pro League club St Ann's Rangers 2-1 thanks a 90th-minute win­ner from Glen Walk­er. Rangers took the lead four min­utes be­fore the half through De­von Mod­este but in the sec­ond-half, WASA turned the match on its head, first through Ter­rence Smith with the lev­eller, in the 77th minute be­fore Walk­er's last gasp win­ner.

At the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, Cou­va, Starz emerged 4-3 win­ners on penal­ty-kicks over Pro League debu­tants, Cen­tral FC af­ter a 1-1 draw. Amer­i­can-born strik­er Lad­ule Losarah fired Cen­tral FC ahead in the 14th minute on­ly for Troy Thomp­son to get Starz lev­el two min­utes lat­er af­ter which there were no fur­ther goals in reg­u­la­tion time, re­sult­ing in penal­ty-kicks where the Diego Mar­tin-based club tri­umphed for a last-eight clash with De­fence Force, 4-0 vic­tors over 1976 To­ba­go Phoenix.

For the "Teteron Boys", So­ca War­riors strik­er, De­vorn Jorsling got a dou­ble, in the 39th and 54th minute at the Dwight Yorke Sta­di­um, Ba­co­let, To­ba­go while Jer­wyn "Bal­ly" Balt­haz­ar (3rd) and cap­tain Corey Rivers (31st) al­so net­ted. How­ev­er, fel­low "Pro­tec­tive Ser­vice", Po­lice was on the re­ceiv­ing end of a 5-0 beat­ing from Su­per League's Stoke­ly Vale with Ron­dell Win­ches­ter scor­ing twice for the win­ners, in the 19th and 75th min­utes.

In the quar­ter­fi­nals, Stoke­ly Vale will face Neal & Massy Cale­do­nia AIA af­ter the lat­ter bat­tled past 1st FC San­ta Rosa, 3-2 in the first match at Mu­cu­rapo. In the two oth­er match­es, North East Stars blanked Siparia Spurs 2-0 with Eli­jah Man­ners and Kay­dion Gabriel on tar­get while T&T sur­vived a tough test from Joe Pub­lic, 4-3 on penal­ty-kicks af­ter a 1-1 draw.

The quar­ter­fi­nals are card­ed for Tues­day fol­lowed by the semi­fi­nals on Fri­day and the fi­nal on De­cem­ber 7. The win­ner al­so takes home $50,000 and $20,000 for the run­ners-up.