Posta stun Sofapaka, last-gasp Stima deny Sharks

Posta Rangers defeated Sofapaka FC 2-1 after an impressive second half rally as the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) season kicked off at near-empty the Narok County Stadium on Friday.

Sofapaka went ahead through Elly Asieche’s first half penalty before Gerson Likono evened the scoreline and Eliud Lokuwam struck on the hour-mark to complete the turnaround for Posta.

There was drama at the Kenyatta Stadium in Machakos where Samuel Abawa converted a late penalty to secure a 2-2 away draw for Western Stima FC against Kariobangi Sharks.

Kennedy Otieno had put the visitors 1-0 up inside 15 minutes but Sharks levelled and went ahead courtesy of goals from Eric Kapaito and Patrick Otieno. Abawa restored parity with two minutes left on the clock.

In Narok, Jairus Adira showed incredible reflexes early on when he dived sharply to deny Sammy Imbuye from scoring after Posta had given the ball away in their own 18-yard area.

Sofapaka barely got a sniff of goal from there on during the opening 20 minutes with Michael Apudo showing great defensive leadership in organising the Posta backline.

The pressure build-up eventually forced a mistake from the visitors after Osman Sulieman caused a penalty which Asieche neatly converted to hand his sided the early advantage.

Likono sent a fierce shot wide from long range for Posta’s only meaningful attacking effort in the opening half and it was the same player that pulled his side level just two minutes into the restart from another long range attempt.

Sofapaka allowed him too much space to set himself up for the shot and he made no mistake, driving it beyond goalkepper Isiah Wakasala for a spectacular equalizer.

Another piece of sloppy defending saw Sofapaka fall a goal down after Lokuwam got on the end of a free-kick and diverted it home.

Kepha Aswani wasted a good opportunity level matters in the 83rd minute, failing to hit the target after Peter Iwasa’s delivery into the box had picked him out.