Mucurapo Secondary Comprehensive have yet another chance to slay the ghost of schools football and end a 25-year drought when they face Carapichaima Senior Comprehensive in Tuesday's 2008 RBTT InterCol final.
Mucurapo skipper Kevin Molino hit all the telling blows, burying a hat-trick past "Pres" in a strong performance for the North Zone champs.
"Caps" got past St Anthony's College by a 2-1 scoreline in a hard-fought match to earn the right to face Mucurapo for the prestigious knockout title.
Mucurapo, even though they did not quite look their best, were clearly the better team, but a defensive mistake in first half stoppage time saw them leading 2-1 at the break.
A few nervy opening moments aside, their strong attack created intense pressure.
Presentation goalkeeper Wesley Douglas performed well enough to keep out the early threats of Molino and Mutar Taylor, but the pressure they absorbed meant they could do little attacking of their own.
Taylor's 12th minute free kick prompted a save from Douglas and then nine minutes later Johan Peltier blasted another dead ball that Douglas barely tipped over the crossbar.
Molino finally got the breakthrough in the 25th, squeezing the loose ball past Douglas amidst confusion in the Pres defence.
The tricky midfielder doubled up in the 38th, slamming home from inside the 18-metre area after Peltier danced around Douglas on the left, leaving him for dead.
Presentation must have felt demoralised after going 2-0 down in the first half, but were granted a ticket back in when in first half stoppage time Mucurapo's defence gifted Pres a chance and Wesley John tapped home on the third attempt.
Pres' joy was short-lived as just three minutes after the break, Molino, with the confidence of a tiger approaching wounded prey, calmly controlled a loose ball and rounded Douglas again before shaking the net.
The match took a further twist when Compre, seemingly cruising to victory, lost Akel Bruce with 20 minutes to go.
He was yellow-carded for a tackle close to the penalty box and earned another immediately for dissent.
But Presentation could not make the best of their man advantage and, despite providing extra pressure, Mucurapo goalie Michael Duff, who had earlier fumbled the ball a few times, pulled off a few timely saves to keep their two-goal lead intact to the final whistle.
In the second match, Kevon Wilson put Carapichaima ahead in the 33rd minute, racing into the area on the counter-attack and beating the advancing Sheldon Clarke in the "Tigers'" goal.
Cordell Cato levelled the scores for St Anthony's in the 70th minute, but four minutes later Caps stole the winner through Neil Woodruffe in the 74th, to book the Central champs' place in the final for the first time since 1992.
Yesterday's RBTT InterCol scores:
Mucurapo 3 (Kevin Molino 25th, 38th, 48th) Presentation 1 (Wesley John 45th)
Carapichaima 2 (Kevon Wilson 33rd, Neil Woodruffe 74th) St Anthony's 1 (Cordell Cato 70th)
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