Toyota Classic Football

Stars needed penalty kicks to eliminate a plucky WASA Clean & White 5-4 at the Larry Gomes Stadium in Arima, after both teams battled to a goalless tie at full-time.

And Caledonia edged Police 1-0 at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium in Marabella. Contrastingly, Defence Force crushed Tobago United 4-1 in the first match of a double-header at Arima while, in the second of back-to-back matches in Marabella, United Petrotrin held off a late rally from Superstar Rangers to prevail 4-3. North East, Caledonia, Defence Force and Petrotrin will join CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh, W Connection, Joe Public and Crab Connection in the quarter-finals, scheduled for October 21.

St Lucian forward Titus Elva scored a 52nd minute winner to give Caledonia a narrow victory over the lawmen.

But the second match at Marabella saw a number of twists and turns, with Rangers going ahead in the 37th minute courtesy Akudu Goodridge before Petrotrin responded with four goals in the space of 14 minutes.

Kevon Clement equalised for the "Oil Men" in the 64th while Brent Garcia got Petrotrin’s second goal three minutes later.

Kevin Hernandez widened the lead to 4-1 with strikes in the 69th and 78th but the match will have one final piece of drama, with veteran midfielder Marc Borde netting twice for Rangers in the 88th and 90th.

Defence Force had little trouble in disposing of Tobago United, courtesy goals from Odelle Armstrong (25th), Ronald St Louis (71st), Kevon Carter (80th) and Devon Jorsling (90th), while Noel Williams got Tobago’s consolation in the 57th.

The North East-WASA match saw gutsy performances by both teams, with North East starting at a furious pace before WASA, coached by former national defender Selris Figaro, crawled back into contention, mainly in the second half.

North East, who have been a shadow of their dominant self last season, recently pulled out of the CONCACAF/CFU Club Championships (they were expected to play SV Robinhood of Suriname in a home-and-away tie this month) due to financial constraints. Even worse, their recent coaching saga which saw Guyanese James McLean fired and then re-hired on an interim basis (alongside ex-national striker Jerren Nixon), looked even more comical on Friday night as club owner and manager Darryl Mahabir shared duties with another national discard Ansil Elcock on the touchlines, with Nixon in the starting XI.

Despite their troubles off the field, North East took advantage of WASA’s timidity in the first half to have clear-cut opportunities — in the 23rd, a clearance from WASA’s defender Kevin Daniel was collected by North East’s captain Charles Pollard, whose 30-metre rocket was saved by Barry Villaroel. In the 42nd, Nixon sent Keryn Navarro free on the left and, with Villaroel committed, squared to Kendall Velox but his left-footer was cleared off the line by another veteran, Anthony Dhanoolal.

WASA’s best moment of the match came in the 52nd, when striker Darin Lewis’ goal-bound run saw the North East defence open up but his pass to Keston Thomas was skied overbar.

Nixon sent his right-footer high in the 64th while Velox was again unlucky when Daniel cleared his deflected effort off the line two minutes.

In the end, kicks from the penalty spot were required, with Lewis’ miss proving costly for WASA. Velox, Fabien Garcia, Shervin Charles, Anthony Wolfe and Navarro scored from the spot while Kien Hernandez, David George, Billydee Scantlebury and Kirth Hutchings netted for WASA.