Defending champions, Ejisu have served notice of their intentions not to let go of the MTN Ashantifest Community Soccer trophy, after earning top spot in Zone A as the 2024 tounament kicked off at the weekend.
Hosting the opening section of the competition involving a total of 16 communities around Kumasi, Ejisu didn’t get off to the best of starts when this year’s event kicked off last Thursday at the Okese Park, only managing to grab a point in a 1-1 draw against Suame in the opening game.
But Dennis Boakye’s lone strike secured all three points for the defending champions in their second match on Friday against new entrants, Adoato who had themselves earlier got their debut campaign off to a winning start the previous day following a 1-0 win over Fante New Town.
Adoato will go on to beat Suame 2-1 in their ‘winner-takes-all’ third game to amass 6 points and assured of advancing to the next round.
Having earlier scored in their preliminary round win over Adum a week before, Adaoto’s, Ernest ‘Baby Jet’ Appiah struck twice to render useless the reply of his namesake, Stephen Appiah Asare AKA Shankiki to bring his tournament leading tally to 3 goals, having also netted the only goal that saw off Fante New Town in their maiden group stage match.
Suame’s Appiah Asare has two goals after also scoring against Ejisu but is out of contention after his team finished third.
Meanwhile, the decisive game 6 between Ejisu and Fante New Town was rescheduled for Saturday after it was rained off on Friday but the away team failed to show up on time for which reason Ejisu were declared winners and rewarded 3 points and 3 goals.
It ensured that the defending champions topped the round-robin section with 7 points, only one more than runners-up, Adaoto who will play in the quarter finals on debut.
Fante New Town are out despite their 1-0 victory earlier over rock bottom Suame who finished on just the one point garnered from their opening draw against Ejisu.
The 2-month long competition continues this weekend when Zone B action storms the Konadu Yiadom astro turf in Ashtown featuring Ashtown of course, Atonsu, Kwadaso and Tech battling each other on Thursday and Friday for the two qualification slots in their section.
MTN Ashantifest Community Soccer 2024
Zone A
Table GP W D L GF GA GD PTS
1. Ejisu 3 2 1 0 5 1 +4 7
2. Adoato 3 2 0 1 3 2 +1 6
2. Fante New Town 3 1 0 2 1 4 -3 3
4. Suame 3 0 1 2 2 4 -2 1
NB: Fante Newtown failed to honour their last game against Ejisu (they were late). Due to that, Ejisu were awarded 3 points and 3 goals.
Top Scorers
1. Ernest Appiah ‘BabyJet’ – 3 (Adoato)
2. Stephen Appiah Asare ‘Shankiki’ – 2 (Suame)
3. Abubakar Rauf ‘Torres’ – 1 (Ejisu)
4. Dennis Boakye – 1 ( Ejisu)
5. Peter Baah Jnr – 1 (Fante Newtown)
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