Mervin Dox­il­ly scored a late equalis­er to help res­cue de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons W Con­nec­tion with a 1-1 draw against Cale­do­nia AIA in the open­ing round of match­es in the T&T Pro League on Fri­day night at the Diego Mar­tin Sport­ing Com­plex in Bagatelle, Dei­go Mar­tin.

Aaron Richards had opened the scor­ing for Cale­do­nia in the 21st minute but nei­ther teams could find the back of the next be­fore the halfway mark, giv­ing Cale­do­nia the 1-0 ad­van­tage at the break.

On the re­sump­tion, it was more of the same as the reign­ing cham­pi­ons hunt­ed for an equalis­er. But it wasn’t un­til four min­utes be­fore the end of reg­u­la­tion time that Dox­il­ly (86th) net­ted the lev­el­ling goal to en­sure Con­nec­tion earned a share of the points with Cale­do­nia.

In the oth­er match of the dou­ble-head­er, a goal each from De­vorn Jorsling and Dar­ius Ol­livier­ra saw De­fence Force to a 2-1 vic­to­ry against Ter­minix La Hor­quet­ta Rangers.

Jorsling scored the open­er in the 27th to see the sol­dier/sailor com­bi­na­tion unit go in at the half 1-0 up.

Rangers were hop­ing to lev­el the scores on the re­sump­tion but Ol­livier­ra (49th) had oth­er in­ten­tions and at the start of the sec­ond half joined Jorsling on the score­sheet in the 49th to put De­fence Force ahead 2-0.

The La Hor­quet­ta team did get a con­so­la­tion goal thanks to Isa­iah Lee in the 89th.

In an­oth­er dou­ble-head­er over at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo, AC Port-of-Spain, for­mer­ly called North East Stars, and Po­lice came away with vic­to­ries.

Rashard Hy­a­centh net­ted a pair of goals in the ninth and 25th in AC Port-of-Spain’s 3-2 win against Cen­tral FC. The oth­er goal was scored by Ko­rdell Samuel (22nd).

For Cen­tral, Damani Richards (47th) and Kessan St Rose (83rd) were the goal-scor­ers in the los­ing ef­fort.

In the sec­ond match, Po­lice played to a 2-0 vic­to­ry over Cunu­pia FC with goals com­ing from Chris­t­ian Thomas (32nd) and Keion Wil­son (34th).

The oth­er open­ing-round match be­tween Tiger Tanks Club San­do and San Juan Jabloteh was resched­uled to yes­ter­day at the Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um in Mara­bel­la and it was the for­mer pre­vail­ing 1-0.

Kadeem Git­tens net­ted the win­ner in the 87th minute.

Scores:

TIGER TANKS CLUB SAN­DO 1 (Kadeem Git­tens) v SAN JUAN JABLOTEH 0

Fri­day

(At Diego Mar­tin Sport­ing Com­plex)

CALE­DO­NIA AIA 1 (Aaron Richards 21st) v W CON­NEC­TION 1 (Mervin Dox­il­ly 86th)

DE­FENCE FORCE 2 (De­vorn Jorsling 27th, Dar­ius Ol­livier­ra 49th) v TER­MINIX LA HOR­QUET­TA RANGERS 1 (Isa­iah Lee 89th)

(At Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um)

AC PORT-OF-SPAIN 3 (Rashard Hy­a­centh 9th, 25th, Ko­rdell Samuel 22nd) v CEN­TRAL FC 2 (Damani Richards 47th, Kessan St Rose 83rd)

PO­LICE 2 (Chris­t­ian Thomas 32nd, Keion Wil­son 34th) v CUNU­PIA FC 0