T&T senior and Under-20 midfielder Michael Chaves of Queen’s Park Cricket Club (QPCC) was taken off the field on a stretcher during his team’s fiesty 2-1 loss against MIC Matura ReUnited in the T&T Premier Football League Tier II Division match in the second clash of a doubleheader at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Training Field, Mucurapo on Sunday night.
The 17-year-old, who featured for T&T at the recent CONCACAF U-20 Championship Pool D Qualifiers at Mucurapo and then made his senior team debut against Jamaica on March 1 in a 1-0 friendly international loss at the same venue, was stretchered off the field and taken to the St Clair Medical Complex, Port-of-Spain where he underwent successful surgery on the fractured left fibula injury, putting an end to what was a stellar season, which also included representing Fatima College in the 2023 Secondary Schools Football League Premier Division.
Matura ReUnited opened the scoring as early as the eighth minute through Daniel Rose, and in the 31st minute, the visitors doubled their advantage through Andrew Nicome.
However, two minutes later, the Parkites, who were without a number of key players inclusive of the influential Sean De Silva, managed to cut the lead in half when Winston Johnson netted.
But a minute before the half-time whistle both teams suffered a blow when Matura ReUnited’s Kwame Hazel was shown a straight red card by referee Rashby Mc Fie for a crunching tackle on Chaves.
In the second half, the Parkites were unable to make their player advantage count as Matura ReUnited held on for the win to climb to a four-way tie for the second spot, improving to 20 points from nine matches, level with the trio of Harlem Strikers, Central Soccer World and previous leader Petit Valley/Diego Martin United (PVDM) who went under to San Fernando Giants 2-0 in the first match at Mucurapo to trail table toppers Guaya United by one point.
Guaya United rallied from 0-2 down to beat the University of T&T Patriots 3-2 at UTT Campus Ground, O’Meara Road, Arima, in an early match on Sunday.
In the second match at Arima, Defence Force got an own goal from Keithen Carter in the 77th minute to draw 1-1 with Harlem Strikers who went ahead on the stroke of half-time thanks to Elijah Seechan.
Results
Sunday
Defence Force 1 (Keithen Carter 77th o.g) vs Harlem Strikers 1 (Elijah Seechan 45+1)
MIC Matura ReUnited 2 (Daniel Rose 8th, Andrew Nicome 31st) vs QPCC 1 (Winston Johnson 33rd)
San Fernando Giants 2 (Arkido Joseph 40th, Rayon Alleyne 90th) vs Petit Valley/Diego Martin 0
Guaya United 3 (Keston Frontin 39th, Kendes Garcia 78th, Renaldo Mc Intosh 85th pen) vs UTT Patriots 2 (Kevaughn Connell 7th, 19th)
Saturday
Laventille United 3 (Quanlanson Archibald 15th, 90+4, John Belgrave 88th) vs Cunupa Eagles FC 2 (Daniel Diaz 43rd, Jesse Downing 84th)
Bethel SC vs Central Soccer World 2 (Ryan Frederick 36th, Elijah Payne 90th) vs Bethel Utd 1 (Teejay Cadiz 45th)
Police FC 2 (Jameel Perry 80th, Clevon Mc Fee 90+6) vs Club Sando 1 (Gerald Meloney 35th)
Latest TTPFL Tier II standings
Pos Teams P W D L F A Pts
1 Guaya Utd 10 7 0 3 20 14 21
2 Harlem Strikers 11 6 2 3 29 13 20
3 Matura ReUnited 9 6 2 1 24 13 20
4 Central Soccer World 11 5 5 1 15 10 20
5 PVDM Utd 12 6 2 4 20 16 20
6 San F’do Giants 11 6 1 4 19 19 19
7 QPCC FC 10 6 0 4 24 11 18
8 Defence Force 10 4 3 3 25 9 15
9 RC Eagles 11 4 3 4 18 21 15
10 Police FC 9 3 2 4 7 9 11
11 RSSR FC 11 2 2 7 11 30 8
12 UTT 10 2 1 7 20 28 7
13 Laventille Utd 11 2 2 7 17 36 7
14 Bethel SC 6 1 2 3 8 11 5
15 Club Sando 8 1 2 5 10 26 5