An early light outage failed to dim the spirit of North Village, but cast a diminishing shadow on Devonshire Colts as the former romped to an emphatic victory last night at PHC Stadium.

A blown fuse delayed the start of the match for nearly an half hour. However, once underway it was the Village operating on all cylinders, leaving Colts smelling the exhaust.

Two first half goals by striker Kevin Jennings and one each by substitute Ricky Hill and college student Damon Wade put paid to any visions Colts had of success.

Vic Ball gave a glimmer of hope to the losers with a spectacular strike minutes after the interval, but the "hellish'' attitude shown by the Red Devils prevailed, allowing them to go into the winners bracket for the next round on Boxing Day.

It took just two minutes for Village to announce their intentions when Sean Dill burst through the opposing defence, receiving a pin-point cross from Jennings near goal and watching as his curling effort did little to trouble Colts' goalkeeper Antoine Lightbourne.

Play see-sawed for much of the early going and, maybe lulled by the lack of action, Lightbourne incurred a lapse in concentration which almost resulted in a goal.

This time it was Jennings supplying a cross into the middle that Wade gathered and directed toward goal under pressure. Lightbourne allowed the ball to slip from his grasp, but luckily regrouped to pick it up before it crossed the line.

The 'keeper would not be so fortunate in the 27th minute as Village surged ahead in text-book fashion.

Rahji Edness started the move through his hustle on the left, feeding Kacy Simons, who in turn passed to Wade wide on the left and his low cross into the penalty area eluded the defence, leaving Jennings the task of blasting into the roof of the net past a bewildered Lightbourne.

Eight minutes later the lead was doubled when a erroneous back-pass by Derek Wright to Lightbourne under pressure resulted in the latter's attempted clearance rebounding into goal off of Jennings following up on the play.

Following a stern lecture from coach Lorenzo Symonds at half-time Colts came out with increased determination for the second half.

Ball's goal materialised from nowhere as he was fed a ball 35 yards from goal.

The midfielder controlled and let loose a scorching right foot shot that dipped into the top left corner, leaving a diving Adams no chance and a goal that must rank among the best of the season.

At that point Colts looked to be back in stride, but they were knocked off stride as defensive blunders allowed, first Wade, and then Hill to sneak behind the back-line to each tap home from close range.

Devonshire Colts: A.Lightbourne; L.Hypolite, D.Wright, J.Sanuels, D.Williams; V.Ball, M.Ray, G.Burt (J.Bean 68 mins); H.Trott, Q.Aberdeen, K.Smith (E.Weldon 56 mins) North Village: D.Adams; W.Bassett, D.Bell, Ken.Jennings, I.Romaine; K.Simons, E.Jennings, R.Edness, S.Dill (R.Hill 68 mins), D.Wade (M.Dill 80 mins), Kev.Jennings Referee: Peter Sousa Men of the match: Leonard Hypolite (Devonshire Colts), Kentoine Jennings (North Village).