by EZRA STUART

JUNIOR TEAMS continue to make their mark in the Banks Barbados Football Association's Knockout Cup with two more advancing to the
quarter-finals.

Unbeaten Division 2 side Dayrells Road, who are leading their zone, and lowly Division 1 team St Peter Cosmos joined powerhouses Paradise in securing quarter-final berths with 1-0 victories over Exactly Unified, Restoration Ministries and Empire respectively in third-round matches at the Brereton Ground, St Philip, on Whit Monday.

Before a fair-sized bank holiday crowd, the dreadlocked Roland Sandiford headed home the winning goal for Dayrells Road in the 83rd minute from an inswinging left-side corner by Darren Parris.

The goal came moments after Dayrells Road play-maker Christopher Sealy was lifted off the field by teammates with a serious leg injury after apparently twisting his ankle as he fell following a challenge by Exactly's goalkeeper Ryan Lovell.

It was a bitter pill for the Dayrells Road fans to swallow as they had already started to celebrate what looked like a goal, only for the ball to agonisingly stop on the goal line where it was cleared by Exactly's defender Ricardo Clarke.

The two Division 2 teams played a fairly good quality of soccer, stringing together some passes and knocking the ball around on the spacious outfield with Kerry "Buju" Lovell and Ricky Mayers combining well up front for Exactly even though they were thwarted by some stout defending from Dayrell's Road.

In the opening match, Cosmos, who knocked out Premier League team Mpact Haggatt Hall on Saturday night at Orange Hill when Jeffrey King scored the lone goal in their 1-0 upset win, moved into the last eight through a 53rd-minute strike by David Forde, brother of national football captain Norman Forde.

Paradise, the most successful Knockout team in the last 12 years with five titles in 1996, 1999, 2000, 2003 and 2005, missed a number of first-half opportunities before Shane Mark slipped past the Empire defence and scored, the play set up by a 70th-minute left side cross from Mustaffa Haqq.

With Division 2 side Belfield, Division 1 leaders and last year's losing finalists Eden Stars and Silver Sands already reaching the last eight, the final two quarter-final spots will be decided tonight at Weymouth "B" playing field.

Claytons Kola Tonic Notre Dame, who last won the title in 2004 when they did the double, will meet Beverley Hills at 6 p.m., while home team Weymouth Wales, whose last knockout triumph was in 1987, will seek to upset 1994 champions Barbados Defence Force at 8 p.m.