Hawassa upstage Wolkite, Coffee date ends in a stalemate

Hawassa City continued their impressive charge up the Betking Ethiopian Premier League table with a hard-fought 3-2 win over Wolkite City on Thursday, while the derby between Ethiopia Coffee and Sidama Coffee ended in a goalless draw.

Both Week 19 fixtures provided lots of drama for fans at the Adama Science and Technology University Stadium.

Mujib Kassim, Hawassa 's top striker and erstwhile league top scorer and title winner with Fasil in 2021, led from the front as the Waves dominated early possession and earned a free kick.

Samuel Asferi must have given Wolkite City coach Gebrekirstos Birara some grey hairs when he scored an own goal to gift Hawassa City a 1-0 lead as early as the fourth minute off a Hawassa free kick.

Getaneh Kebede almost equalised for Wolkite City in the 12th minute with a rasping free kick, but Mohamed Muntari in goal for Hawassa punched the ball away.

Mujib Kassim almost made it 2-0 after being set up by Ephraim Ashamo, but he just couldn't convert in the 20th minute with the keeper off his line.

Wolkite City eventually equalised in the 27th minute through Buzuayehu Seife who headed in Getaneh Kebede's freekick despite the best efforts of Muntari in goal.

The second half saw the action move end to end until Hawassa took the lead on 70 minutes through Mujib Kasim to take the score to 2-1.

Wolkite City fought back gamely, and they were rewarded eight minutes later when their first goalscorer, Buzuayehu, returned the favour, laying on the ball for Getaneh Kebede and he beat Mohamed Muntari from quite a distance outside the box to draw the scores level at 2-2 in the 78th minute.

Hawassa City still had some fight in them, but it was another own goal scored by the same player (Asferi) that settled the game in Wolkite's favour.

Hawassa remain fourth but with 31 points and are now just five points behind both second-placed Bahir Dar City and third- placed Ethiopian Insurance on 36 points each.

Ethiopia Coffee are in fifth spot despite their 0-0 draw with Sidama Coffee. Sidama, in 14th spot, earned a valuable point to move to 21 points, the same as Wolkite in 12th and Arbaminch City in 13th.