Ke­muel Rivers scored the de­ci­sive goal as Cen­tral Soc­cer World de­feat­ed Cen­tral FC 2-1 for their sec­ond win in eight match­es in the 2022 As­cen­sion Foot­ball League Tour­na­ment at the St James Po­lice Train­ing Bar­racks, Long Cir­cu­lar Road, St James on Sun­day.

Play­ing on a slick sur­face due to the per­sis­tent rain­fall that oc­curred for most of the evening, Cen­tral FC took a sur­prise 17th-minute lead through Leonar­do Da Cos­ta, one of the Da Cos­ta twins, which they took in­to the half-time in­ter­val.

How­ev­er, four min­utes af­ter the restart, Ryan Fred­er­ick drew Cen­tral Soc­cer World be­fore Rivers net­ted the win­ner in the 61st minute.

The win lift­ed Cen­tral Soc­cer World sev­enth on the ta­ble with sev­en points from eight match­es, the same as Re­al West Fort, but with a su­pe­ri­or goal dif­fer­ence of mi­nus-eight to mi­nus-13.

At the top of the ta­ble, Ter­minix La Hor­quet­ta Rangers and 2019 in­au­gur­al tour­na­ment win­ners, De­fence Force both have 20 points, but the for­mer leads by a su­pe­ri­or goal dif­fer­ence as well with Po­lice FC third with 18 points, fol­lowed by new fourth-placed oc­cu­piers De­porti­vo Point Fortin with 14, and Cunu­pia FC, which slips to fifth with 12 points.

The ten clubs are com­pet­ing in two rounds of foot­ball on 18 match days for a win­ners prize of $100,000, with sec­ond place get­ting $50,000, and third $25,000.

The tour­na­ment was first played in 2019, how­ev­er, due to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, the com­pe­ti­tion was not held in 2020 and 2021, with this year’s com­pe­ti­tion be­ing staged with a bud­get of $3.5 mil­lion, with $175,000 in prize mon­ey.

Fri­day

La Hor­quet­ta Rangers 1 (Re­al Gill 25th) vs Cunu­pia FC 1 (Kwasi Allen 57th)

De­fence Force 4 (Brent Sam 26th, 71st, Jameel Boatswain 46th, Dwight Quin­tero 82nd) vs Po­lice 2 (Mick­aeel Gor­don 17th, 65th)

Sat­ur­day

AC Port-of-Spain 6 (Michael Poon Angeron 39th, Saeed Charles 49th, Che Ben­ny 43rd, Sedale Mc Lean 67th, 77th, 88th) vs Moru­ga FC 1 (At­i­ba Charles 74th)

De­porti­vo Point Fortin 4 (Aki­no­la Gre­go­ry 4th, 37th, An­drei Pacheco 55th, Hughton Hec­tor 74th) vs Re­al West Fort 0

Sun­day

Cen­tral Soc­cer World 2 (Ryan Fred­er­ick 49th, Ke­muel Rivers 61st) vs Cen­tral FC 1 (Leonar­do Da Cos­ta 17th)

Lead­ing Goalscor­ers

9 - Kevon Wood­ley (Cunu­pia FC)

8 - Jameel Boatswain (De­fence Force)

7 - Brent Sam (De­fence Force)

6 - Re­on Moore (De­fence Force), Mick­aeel Gor­don (Po­lice FC)

5 - Ty­rone Charles, Isa­iah Lee (La Hor­quet­ta Rangers), Che Ben­ny (AC Port-of-Spain)

4 - Aki­no­la Gre­go­ry (De­porti­vo Point Fortin)

Lat­est stand­ing

Teams P W D L F A GD Pts

1. La Hor­quet­ta Rangers 8 6 2 0 35 11 24 20

2. De­fence Force 8 6 2 0 27 5 22 20

3.Po­lice FC 8 6 0 2 24 11 13 18

4. De­porti­vo PF 8 4 2 2 14 7 7 14

5. Cunu­pia FC 8 4 1 3 15 13 2 13

6. AC PoS 8 2 3 3 16 18 -2 9

7. Cen­tral Soc­cer World 8 2 1 5 8 16 -8 7

8. Re­al West Fort 8 2 1 5 8 21 -13 7

9. Cen­tral FC 8 1 2 5 11 24 -13 5

10. Moru­ga FC 8 0 0 8 5 37 -32 0