BY IFEANYI UWAGWU
FORTRESS Ladies FC of Benin-City have emerged as winners of the inaugural Defiant Ladies U-17 Football Tournament as they defeated Delta Babes FC of Warri by a lone goal.
Billed as a titanic clash between the best attack and defence in the competition, with Delta Babes racking up 10 goals en route the finals, only conceding one goal and their opponents who had not conceded a goal, while putting 5 past their opponents.
At the blast of the whistle the Warri based side who had two of the 3 leading goal scorers in the competition, had a flurry of chances which went begging, with Agboye Happiness and Joy Joseph, the usual suspects, as the first half finished goalless.
In the second half Favour Enodumenben of Fortress Ladies managed to slot the ball beyond Agboye Joy in goal for Delta Babes, after a goal mouth scramble. Despite the efforts of the Warri based side to find a way into the game, they were thwarted by the resilient efforts of the Fortress backline, as they held on to an important win, to clinch the trophy and a cash prize of N500,000.
The second-placed team Delta Babes received a cash prize of N300,000, while Thunder Bay FC of Kwale who emerged as the third placed team after defeating Mighty Wanderers in the earlier fixture, received a cash prize of N250,000.
Fortress Ladies Goalkeeper, Ayomide Ajala emerged as the best Goalkeeper of the tournament, for keeping 3 clean sheets, while Agboye Happiness emerged as the highest goalscorer with 3 goals and Joy Joseph emerging as the Most Valuable Player of the tournament. Coach of Fortress Ladies, Eigbe Odianonsen emerged as the Coach of the tournament.
