Hillel keeps round-of-16 dreams alive with hard-fought victory

HILLeL Academy pulled off a dramatic 2-1 victory at home, in a hot-tempered ISSA manning Cup second-round fixture, to keep their hopes of a historic round-of-16 qualification alive. In their first match this season at their resurfaced Cherry Gardens venue, Hillel worked their way back from a goal down to bounce back from their 3-0 defeat to Eltham in the opening game of the round. It was, however, not without drama as 13-year-old goalkeeper Levi Clarke came up big, producing a penalty save deep in the second half to preserve Hillel’s lead, before things boiled over at the end of the contest, resulting in three Denham Town players receiving red cards. Head Coach Sean Fraser felt his team had more to give but was thankful for the victory and underlined their determination to secure what would be a history-making qualification to the round of 16 in what is their second season in the competition. “We are happy for the three points. I mean, four teams are coming out of the group, so winning today was important but I think that we need to work a little bit harder,” Fraser said. “It was a good game for most in the second half; in the first, we didn’t have a clue as to what we wanted to do. But the team came into its own in the second half and kudos to them,” he added. Both teams started the match by observing a minute’s silence for former player Noah Hietbrink, a member of last year’s team who passed away recently. In a game void of quality at times, Denham Town, who are also coming off a loss, got the first chance to break the deadlock. Almaro Grant really should have done better after being played through after about 15 minutes but somehow sent his shot well over the bar with only Clarke and God for company. Hillel failed to heed the warning and Grant again found himself bearing down on goal a few minutes later, this time, being brought down by Clarke for a penalty. Captain Garfield Massop, who had a solid game, stepped up to score in the 24th minute to send the visitors in front. The equaliser was a thing of beauty. Miles Azan drove through the middle, played a near one-two with Matthew Turner before curling a sublime left-footer into the top corner in the 39th. Turner got a chance three minutes later but shot straight at the goalkeeper from just outside the six-yard box. The winner was equally sublime, Marques McKenzie finished with a driving left foot shot, straight from a corner, and clearly straight from the training ground. The win keeps them on track to secure one of the four spots from the group for a round-of16 berth, something Fraser said would mean everything to the institution. “We have good players and we can make it happen. This would be big for the programme, especially considering what we’re trying to do here. We’re trying to be a competitive school and not just to participate. So I think we’re going in the right direction at the moment, but there is a lot of work to do,” Fraser added. With the game approaching its end, things got ugly when a Hillel player was struck in the face by a Denham Town player, which led to a scuffle. In the end, three Denham Town players were shown red cards, bringing a sour end to an entertaining contest.