Beitar Jerusalem downed Maccabi Petach Tikva 3-1 as a trio of goal scorers found the back of the net as the yellow-and-black recorded their second win in a row. Beitar got busy early as Shon Weissman scored off a gorgeous Tomer Yosefi ball while Omer Atzily’s shot was deflected into the goal for a 2-0 at the break.

Johnbosco Kalu put home a marvelous Yarden Shua assist to bump the lead up to 3-0 but Yoav Cohen broke up the clean sheet but that’s as close at the visitors would get a Beitar took the win.

“I think it was a good game but I’m not going to get carried away,” Beitar Head Coach Almog Cohen said. “We saw a dominant team creating a lot of chances and that’s exactly what I wanted. For almost 90 minutes, there was only one team on the pitch and I’m very proud of the players. But I was very disappointed by the goal we conceded; we talked about it. We want to be a team that is difficult to play against. Everyone pressed after every turnover. I’m happy with the performance, and we’ll move on.”

Petach Tikva Head Coach Ziv Arie spoke about the loss, “We saw some very good football but we also didn’t have a enough quality to finish properly and unfortunately we just couldn’t find the back of the goal. The guys wanted to score and we did what we wanted to on the attack but the ball didn’t go in.”

Shon Weissman talked about the win, “I was emotional about the goal because I hadn’t been in Israel for a number of years and that was the last time I was here was on Rosh Hashanah. The next day, my grandfather fell into a coma and I was able to celebrate Rosh Hashanah with him and now it was Rosh Hashanah again, and it was impossible not to remember. I came with the feeling that I would score a goal and that my grandfather was watching over me from above and seeing it. I couldn’t hold myself back and thank God for everything.

“I felt really good when I first arrived, but then I suffered an injury that delayed me. I’m happy that we won and that I scored. I’m here to help the team. Beitar is crazy and this is just the tip of the iceberg, because soon we’ll be back at Teddy Stadium and I’ve heard that it will be absolute madness there.”

Beitar had ten first chance of the game less than five minutes in as Shon Weissman’s sharp angled shot just skirted by the left post and out, while his header also missed the mark. At the other end, Samuel Owusu’s long range blast went over the bar while Jose Cortez’s chance from in close was blocked by the yellow-and-black defenders.

Almog Cohen’s squad kept pushing forward and were rewarded for their efforts when Weissman slammed home a terrific Tomer Yosefi ball inside of the box for a 1-0 lead in the 19th minute. Less then ten minutes later Omer Atzily finished off a nice team play as his smart shot deflected off of Jose Cortes to double the advantage. Cortes then looked to avenge his miscue and sent a screamer off of the post as Liran Rotman’s chance in the box was saved by a diving Miguel Silva while at the other end Brayan Carabali’s header missed the target as did Atzily’s attempt as Beitra took a 2-0 lead into the break.

Yosefi tried to feed Weissman once again in the box but his header went wide, Boris Enow long distance liner was deflected over the goal by keeper Maor Erlich, Carabali’s attempt missed the target and Daniel Worko’s shot was just pawed to safety as Beitar ratcheted up the offense. Luka Gadrani tried his luck at the Petach Tikva goal as did Enow but the best chance came from the visitors when Marko Rakonjac’s can’t miss attempt was kick saved by Silva to keep the clean sheet in order at the 65th minute.

Adi Yona, who came on as a substitute made his first appearance of the season after having been out of action due to an injury that occurred midway during last campaign, has a brilliant chance but the keeper tipped it over the goal, while Johnbosco Kalu’s attempt was caught by Erlich as Beitar continued to hunt for a third goal.

And a third goal they would find when a pair of substitutes in Johnbosco Kalu and Yarden Shua teamed up as the former took a terrific pass from the latter and slotted it home for a 3-0 lead. But Yoav Cohen came right back down and took advantage of a defensive miscue by Beitar to pull to within a pair of goals, however, it was too little, too late as the yellow-and-black closed out the win.