PHC 4 Devonshire Cougars 1

PHC Zebras stampeded over a jaded Devonshire Cougars side before a large crowd at BAA Field on Saturday night to get their Martonmere Cup campaign off to a flying start.

Pitted against the defending cup champions, PHC looked anything but a team coming out for their first kick of the season.

They pulled their opponents out of shape by utilising both flanks, exposed gaping holes in the Cougars defence and won the battle in the middle of the park with relative ease.

A stroke of genius from Chris Furbert (29th minute), two clinical strikes from Stephen Astwood (34th and 64th minutes) and a sucker punch by second half substitute Raynel (Manga) Lightbourne (90th minute) sent Cougars limping back to the drawing board in what was their second successive loss of the young season, having also lost the previous week's Charity Cup.

A near flawless performance at the back by captain Stanton Lewis and some timely saves by 'keeper Stefan Dupres further underlined the Zebras' superiority in a one-sided affair that failed to live up to full expectations.

Raymond Beach (42 minutes) managed to pull a goal back for Cougars but a tongue-lashing during the interval from coach Albert Smith failed to re-ignite their flame.

Other than Beach, Cougars' remaining key figures, Mark Smith, Kori Goddard, Shawn Smith and Heys Wolfe, all had quiet outings.

"Overall, I think that it was a good performance . . . but I am still not satisfied in terms of finishing because we should've had even more goals," said PHC coach, Mark Wade.

"But for the first game of the season the players gave a good account of themselves."

After an uneventful opening half-hour, Furbert finally brought the match to life, smashing home a fierce, first-time drive from the edge of the box through a maze of players and past a blinded Ricardo Brangman in the Cougars goal.

Five minutes later Astwood made it 2-0 as he withstood two challenges before slotting home from an acute angle into an empty net.

Inbetween, Cougars' Jeremy DeShields could only watch as his adventurous long range effort whistled past the upright with Dupres a mere spectator.

Kori Goddard, just inside the 18 yard box, then volleyed straight into the arms of Dupres before the PHC goalie was again called upon to push Wolfe's close range effort around the upright for a corner.

With half-time looming, Beach scored his second goal of the season after he was allowed a free run to give his side a glimmer of hope.

But Astwood wasn't done just yet and he demonstrated another touch of class mid-way through the second half as PHC regained their two-goal cushion. This time the lanky forward narrowly evaded the offside trap, running some 10 yards before unleashing a crisp drive that found its mark past Brangman.

With their opponents now reduced to chasing shadows, it was left for substitute Lightbourne to close out the scoring, rifling home from close range after a good build-up involving Tokia Russell and Astwood.

Devonshire: R.Brangman, G.Butterfield (T.Smith, 70 mins), S.Smith, D.Eve, J.DeShields, K.Saltus (J.Simmons, 65 mins), S.Coddington, M.Smith, R.Beach, H.Wolfe, K.Goddard (A.Minors, 80 mins).

PHC: S.Dupres, S.Lewis, C.Furbert, C.Dowling, J.Sealy, O.Shakir (J.Ball, 70 mins), O.Steede, T.Russell, B.Bean, S.Astwood, K.Lambe (R.Lightbourne, 65 mins).

Booked: K.Goddard (57 min).

Men of the match: S.Astwood (PHC); R.Beach (Devonshire).

Referee: A.Mouchete.

PHC 8 Robin Hood 1

Shuntae Todd blasted home five goals to help PHC to this drubbing of Robin Hood in Saturday's Women's Konica Cup match.

Tschana Wade, Genevana Simmons and Stephanie Fleming also managed to get in on the scoring act before Jen Bailey scored a late consolation goal for Hood.