Dev.Colts 2 Boulevard 0 (abandoned after 53 minutes) Violence reared its ugly head on the soccer field once again yesterday resulting in the abandonment of this FA Cup semi-final at St. John's Field.

And instead of a regulation one-match ban, Boulevard youngster Haile Outerbridge now faces a lengthy suspension after hurling a bottle at referee Tony Mouchette just eight minutes into the second half.

Outerbridge reacted angrily after moments earlier having been shown the red card.

Mouchette was hit in the back by the bottle thrown by the fiery 20-year-old who was ejected for a second booking in the space of a minute.

Unhurt, the referee calmly called together his two assistants, Lyndon Raynor and Lawrence DeShields, and abandoned the match.

"It didn't hurt me, but it's the principle of the thing,'' said Mouchette of his decision to call off the match.

A police officer, Mouchette had his back to Outerbridge and was about to restart the game when the bottle, thrown from several yards away, bounced and hit him in the back.

It was the latest in a string of violent incidents this season involving players and marked the second straight year that an FA Cup semi-final had been abandoned for fighting.

Last year at White Hill Field the Vasco-North Village match was abandoned two minutes from the end when players came to blows with Vasco leading 2-0. There were no further incidents as officials were escorted off the field.

Boulevard will act swiftly in dealing with yesterday's offender, president Lou Matthews stated afterwards.

"We feel the issue of violence that has plagued the sport is deplorable and we have to do more to tackle it,'' said Matthews, who was at the match but did not witness the incident.

"We're not condoning violence, it's disgusting and disgraceful. We're not supporting the player's actions in any way. He will be facing immediate action from us, at the earliest this week. He has to answer for his actions.'' Like Vasco last March and again just recently when their match with Southampton Rangers was abandoned, Colts also look certain to be awarded the match. However, that decision will only be made once Bermuda Football Association have studied reports from the officials.

Though Colts had a comfortable lead and almost added a third goal early in the second half, the match was still very much in the balance with almost 40 minutes remaining and Boulevard starting to raise their game.

"We surely don't want to win it this way, we would like to play the 90 minutes out and may the best team win after the 90 minutes,'' said Colts coach Darrin Lewis afterwards.

Lewis admitted incidents such as the one experienced yesterday continued to hurt local football.

"Here lately football has suffered from some of these nasty incidents,'' said Lewis. "Hopefully we can clean this up and get back to playing football. You have youngsters around the field who just witnessed that and it's not good for football and not good for society.

"Here we are left with fans around looking to watch a good FA Cup semi-final.

It was only 2-0, with the wind going with them, and with still a lot of football to be played.'' The incident which sparked the outburst came when Outerbridge and Colts defender Jermel Belboda were involved in a scuffle and booked. While the Boulevard free kick was about to be taken and Mouchette was still writing, there was another scuffle on the edge of the box as players prepared for the kick.

That second incident involved Outerbridge and Makonnen Hollis which was spotted by referee's assistant DeShields on the far side. After brief consultation with DeShields, Mouchette called over both players and cautioned them which meant a red card for Outerbridge as he had already been booked.

Colts held a deserved 2-0 lead with both their goals coming in the first half from corners.

The first came in the 26th minute when Tito Smith flighted an inswinging corner from the right and Hollis powered a free header past Mitchell Steede in the Boulevard goal.

Steede's failure to handle a cross from another corner led to the second Colts goal. This one was taken by Keishon Smith from the left side in the 40th minute and when Steede dropped the ball Aljame Zuill knocked it over the line from just a couple of yards.

There was one booking in the first half, Romond Douglas of Colts for a foul on Boulevard defender Robert Wilson.

Dev.Colts: T.Hall; J.Simmons, S.Burgess, M.Hollis, J.Belboda, D.Wright, K.Smith, T.Smith, R.Douglas, A.Zuill, J.Laws.

Boulevard: M.Steede; R.Wilson, L.Stevens, M.Trott, A.Caisey, D.Boyles, V.Eve, O.Minors, S.Crockwell, D.Warren, H.Outerbridge.

Referee: Anthony Mouchette.

St. George's beat Boulevard 3-0 in the Crystal Palace semi-final at St. John's yesterday.

All the goals came in the second half with Jarreau Hayward netting in the 56th and 71st minutes and Cabear Dill hitting the third two minutes from the end.

Photos by Ras Mykkal Off you go: Boulevard's Haile Outerbridge is shown the red card by referee Anthony Mouchette. Moments later the youngster reacted by throwing a bottle at Mouchette which hit him in the back, forcing the ref to abandon the match.

Scuffle: Makonnen Hollis (5) and Haile Outerbridge grip each other as (from left) Dwight Warren, Shannon Burgess, Dean Boyles and Jermel Belboda look on.