Presentation College San Fernando displayed another composed performance, albeit with 10 players, to close in on the South Zone Championship of the BGTT/First Citizens Secondary Schools Football League, after beating St Benedict’s College 3-1, in La Romain, yesterday.
It was a result which saw ‘Pres’ record its ninth straight win in the campaign, and two away en route to dethroning Shiva Boys, which nevertheless remained in the hunt with a 2-0 victory over Naparima College—the same result as the first leg.
It was St Benedict’s which surprised many with an early goal, when Yaseu Rougier slotted home in the seventh minute, but it took Presentation less than 15 minutes to respond, as Mathaius Hall scored to initiate a comeback.
Presentation found a lead in the 63rd minute through Shackiel Henry, which was followed less than five minutes later by yet another goal from the team and zone’s leading scorer Shackiel Henry.
Moments before Henry scored, St Benedict’s had the opportunity to equalize when Kyle Celestine stepped up for a penalty, after Presentation’s opening goal scorer, Hall, handled the ball, which saw him being ejected from the match with his second yellow card.
Celestine however missed the spot kick, which resulted in a turnover which Henry took full advantage of to add to his impressive tally which now stands at 16 goals from nine matches.
Shiva, which also won with two first half goals, will need full points in its remaining four matches and hope for Presentation to drop points in order to stand a chance at retaining the title.
Up north, the race for the title remains in full swing with both the reigning champion St Anthony’s College and East Mucurapo securing important away wins. St Anthony’s defeated Trinity 3-1, while East Mucurapo turned up with a late goal to drop St Mary’s 1-0.
After a goalless first half, it took only six minutes for St Anthony’s to find a three-goal lead, with Shaquille Long scoring a double (47th and 49th) and Kwesi Allen bagging the insurance goal in the 51st. Trinity got its consolation goal through Isaiah Price in the 77th minute. The win kept the “Tigers” on top the table by three points.
At Serpentine Road, St Mary’s and East Mucurapo were seemingly headed for a goalless draw, but a neat finish from Akeem Roach in the 80th minute put East Mucurapo back in contention for the top spot in the league, while St Mary’s were left to rue its conservative approach after back to back wins.
Fatima College, meanwhile, continued its downhill form with a 3-3 draw at home to QRC.
With a solid 3-1 half time lead, Fatima struggled in the second, whilst allowing QRC to pull two goals back with 20 minutes remaining, the second of which was scored by Courcian Elcock in the 88th minute. Fatima, which started the season well with four wins from six matches, has now failed to find a victory in three matches.
The “Dial Dynamos” of Arima North opened a four-point lead in the East Zone after whipping host El Dorado West 3-1, led by a goal in each half from national Under-20 striker, Marcus Gomez.
Jomal Francis opened Arima’s account after 17 minutes and Gomez doubled the lead in the 32nd, only for El Dorado to pull one back four minutes before the half.
The second half was a very tight affair with Gomez managing to get an insurance goal, his second of the match, three minutes from full-time to push its points tally to 21 from nine matches, four more than San Juan North.
San Juan North, meanwhile, also won on the road 4-1 at Trinity East, led by a double from Andel Andrews to move ahead of idle defending champions El Dorado East (16 points), which has a match in hand on the leaders.
In the zone’s other match, Jordan Devenish and Ricardo John both got braces as St Augustine “Green Machine” steamrolled Toco 4-0 to keep hold of fourth spot, two behind El Dorado East.
In the Central Zone, Chaguanas North closed to within two points of defending champion Carapichaima East with a hard fought 2-1 win over Tabaquite at Homeland Gardens, Chaguanas, in a match that was rescheduled from a week ago due to a lack of officials.
Chaguanas went ahead on the half-hour mark thanks to Keagan Edwards but six minutes later Jesse Frank conceded an own-goal for a 1-1 half-time score.
The match then seemed headed for a draw when Jeron Humphrey netted an 83rd-minute winner for Chaguanas to move to 14 points from six matches, one behind Carapichaima.
Over in Tobago, Valdez Perez netted the lone goal in the 78th minute as Scarborough completed the season sweep of rivals Signal Hill with a 1-0 win and now leads with ten points from four matches, four ahead of Speyside which played to a 2-2 draw with Mason Hall for the second time this season.
Yesterday’s Results
East:
St Augustine 4 (Jordan Devenish 2, Ricardo John 2) vs Toco 0
Arima North 3 (Marcus Gomez 32nd, 87th, Jomal Francis 17th) vs El Dorado West 1 (41st)
San Juan North 4 (Andel Andrews 2, Brent Sam, Anthony Downes) vs Trinity East 1 (Jameel Sempel)
Central:
Chaguanas North 2 (Keagan Edwards 30th, Jeron Humphrey 83rd) vs Tabaquite 1 (Jesse Frank o.g. 36th)
Tobago:
Scarborough 1 (Valdez Perez 78th) vs Signal Hill 0
Speyside 2 vs Mason Hall 2
North:
Mucurapo 1 (Akeem Roach 80th) v St Mary’s College 0
Fatima 3 (Arvin Prescod 16th, 45th, Brendon Creed 23rd) v QRC 3 (Josh Williams 30th, 70th, Courcian Elcock 88th)
St Anthony’s 3 (Shaquille Long 47th, 49th, Kwesi Allen 51st) v Trinity 1 (Isaiah Price 77th)
South:
Shiva 2 (Shevon Diaz, Qwesi Weston) v Naparima 0
Presentation 3 (Shackiel Henry 22nd, 67th, Matthius Halls 63rd) v St Benedict’s 1 (Yaseu Rougier 7th)
Princes Town 2 v Pleasantville 1
Current Zonal Standings
North:
Teams P W D L F A Pts
St Anthony’s 9 6 3 0 16 6 21
East Mucurapo 9 5 3 1 13 6 18
St Mary’s 9 4 2 3 12 9 14
Fatima 9 4 2 3 13 11 14
QRC 8 1 2 5 14 17 5
D/Martin North 8 1 2 5 5 14 5
Trinity 8 1 1 6 5 15 5
East:
Teams P W D L F A Pts
Arima North 9 6 3 0 28 11 21
San Juan North 8 5 2 1 17 5 17
El Do East 8 5 1 2 18 15 16
St Augustine 8 4 2 2 17 9 14
Trinity East 8 2 1 5 14 18 7
El Do West 9 2 0 7 8 19 6
Toco 8 0 1 7 4 29 1
South:
Teams P W D L F A Pts
Presentation 9 9 0 0 29 4 27
Shiva 8 6 1 1 14 3 19
Naparima 9 5 0 4 17 12 15
St Benedict’s 9 3 2 4 19 12 11
P/Town 7 2 1 4 8 17 7
P’ville 9 1 1 7 7 19 4
Moruga 7 0 1 6 5 32 1
Central:
Teams P W D L F A Pts
Carapichaima 6 5 0 1 43 5 15
Chaguanas North 6 4 2 0 14 3 14
Couva West 6 3 0 3 9 15 9
Presentation 5 1 2 2 3 11 5
Tabaquite 6 1 1 4 4 19 4
Gasparillo 5 0 1 4 2 22 1
Tobago:
Teams P W D L F A Pts
S/borough 4 3 1 0 11 5 10
Speyside 4 1 3 0 8 7 6
M/Hall 3 0 3 0 4 4 3
S/Hill 5 0 2 3 2 6 2
R/borough 2 0 1 1 2 5 1