Sports
Roneil Walcott
FATIMA College and St Anthony’s College sealed a meeting in this year’s Secondary Schools Football League’s (SSFL) boys’ north zone intercol final with contrasting results over St Mary’s College and Malick Secondary in their respective semis at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo on November 21.
Meanwhile, in the east zone intercol semis on November 22, San Juan North Secondary booked their spot in the zonal final when they defeated Arima North Secondary 5-4 on penalties after the teams were tied 2-2 at the end of regulation time. The “Dial Dynamos” will certainly feel like they let one slip against the reigning east zone intercol champions, as they took a two-goal lead to the half before the game was tied up late by San Juan attacker Jahdel Chase-Charles.
At the Arima North compound, the hosts took the lead in the 27th minute with a penalty from their prolific midfielder Darren DeFour, before Rickeel Phillip made it 2-0 in the 44th minute. After the break, San Juan midfielder Daniel Lewis cut into Arima’s lead with a 68th-minute strike, with Chase-Charles then sending the game into the shootout with his goal in the 86th minute.
From the spot, San Juan kept their nerves and just edged their rivals to get the 5-4 victory to keep their zonal title-defence well and truly alive.
San Juan, who are still battling for premier division survival in the ongoing league campaign, will now meet the “Green Machine” of St Augustine Secondary in the east final after the latter school got a 2-0 victory over St George’s College on November 20 in the other semifinal.
In Mucurapo on November 21, there was also a lot of penalty drama as reigning north zone champions Fatima saw off a late comeback effort from St Mary’s in regulation time to eke out a 4-3 win on penalty kicks after the teams were deadlocked at 3-3 through 90 minutes.
Perhaps, fittingly, Fatima opened the scoring in regulation time via a 52nd-minute penalty from Seth Hadeed, with Eran McLeod then equalising for St Mary’s with a penalty of his own 12 minutes later.
By the 80th minute, Fatima looked to be sailing to the north finale as Phillip Nelson scored his second goal in the space of five minutes to give his team a 3-1 lead. St Mary’s battled back, though, with the burly Jaylon Roberts cutting Fatima’s lead to 3-2 with a thunderbolt from outside the area before Josiah Hunte notched the equaliser in the dying moments of the game.
From the spot, St Mary’s squandered a 3-2 lead as Fatima came back to pull off the 4-3 shootout victory.
In the first match of the north zone semifinal double-header, the “Westmoorings Tigers” of St Anthony’s got a 3-0 win over Malick to set up a tasty final with Fatima.
