Busia County soccer boys defending champions Achiya Echakara Kamuriai Secondary School were stunned by St Joseph’s Kocholia 3-0 on penalties.
The match was an ill-tempered semi-final match of the Amagoro Zone Term 2B games at Kocholia High School grounds on Saturday.
Kamuriai stunned Kocholia with two quick goals to take a 2-0 lead at the break.
Undeterred by an early setback, Kocholia pulled one back from the spot and added the second to make it 2-2 with two minutes to the end of the match.
Centre referee Douglas Okware applied penalty rules to decide the team to qualify for Sunday’s finals against St Augustine Kamolo who booked a final slot after beating Kokare 5-3 on penalties following a goalless draw in regulation time.
Kocholia won the penalty shootout 3-0, upsetting the county giants; the match ended in running battles while the centre referee and his two assistants were whisked to safety by tournament officials and FKF Teso Sub Branch chairman Moses Imai.
Kamuriai who failed to convert a single penalty should blame themselves after being awarded a penalty in the second half but they wasted the glorious opportunity.
They were reduced to 10 men when their defender was sent off after regulation time for dissent.
The County title holders have a final opportunity to salvage their dented image when they travel to Kolanya next Saturday for sub county finals which will pit four teams from Amagoro and Kolanya zones.
In Kolanya zone matches played at Katakwa Secondary School on Saturday, Kolanya survived elimination by a whisker when they tied on 7 points with Moding but qualified for the semi -finals on goal difference.
Kolanya will now meet Katakwa who topped their pool in the semi-finals with Oduya Oprong who topped the other group taking on Chamasiri in the other semis.
Kamolo who had beaten Kocholia 1-0 in the preliminary round match earlier in the day took to Amagoro streets on Saturday evening celebrating their giant killing feat and reaching an historic final.
In the girl’s category, Salvation Army Aboloi retained the zonal title after beating Kamuriai 4-2 with one student Gladys Amulen netting all the four goals.
Brenda Wafula led St Thomas Amagoro to a 1-0 victory over Albert Ekirapa to earn them second position.