St Mary's College subdued the St Anthony's College "Tigers" 1-0 with a last-gasp goal to leap to third in the highly competitive North Zone of the BG T&T Secondary Schools Football League yesterday at Serpentine Road, St Clair.
St Mary's move from fifth to third in the ultra-tight zone, while Queen's Royal College sprang to the top of the table with a 2-0 victory over Woodbrook Secondary at Hayes Street, and Fatima College moved into second after disposing of Trinity College 3-0 at Moka.
Before that late winner at Serpentine Road however, St Anthony's looked the more likely team to score, having dominated the match with their customary attacking style.
There was little to separate the teams in the first 45 minutes, with perhaps the visitors having a slightly better opening period. However, early on, the finishing from both sides was quite ordinary.
For St Anthony's, Cordell Cato shot wide and strike partner Mikhail "Nani" Walters had an attempt smothered by "Saints'" goalkeeper Raheem Belgrave.
For most of the next 20 minutes, St Mary's did most of the defending, and failed to make the best of a few diagonal balls on the counter-attack.
Still both sides had great chances to go ahead just before half-time. Walters rocked St Mary's left post and midfielder Naseef Karimullah blasted the rebound over. In stoppage time at the other end, Dave Long's attempted headed clearance soared toward his own goal before Francois intervened.
St Anthony's nearly grabbed the lead in the first minute after the break, but Cato missed and then Moriba Ballah came out second best in a one-on-one with Belgrave. St Anthony's also squandered a pair of close range free kicks.
It was almost one way traffic, apart from a couple of looks at goal from St Mary's striker Brian De Verteuil and captain Kyle Beggs. St Anthony's defender Dion Manswell also gave St Mary's a chance, his sliced clearance going back towards goal until Francois intervened, while Cato's attempted back pass was too strong, but Francois, already committed, got a hand to the ball.
The hard-working Karimullah also missed the mark at least twice for the visitors and Belgrave also had two brilliant stops to keep the Tigers attack out.
Two minutes into stoppage time, Kirton (D) belted a failed clearance first time, and even the dependable Francois could do nothing to keep it out. The Saints will celebrate their great escape. But the Tigers were left to lick their wounds until their next match against Woodbrook on Saturday.
Yesterday's SSFL scores
North Zone
QRC 2 (Duane Muckette, ) v Woodbrook Sec 0
St Mary's 1 (Dillon Kirton) v St Anthony's 0
Trinity 0 v Fatima 3
East Zone
San Juan (Curtly Dodds, Kurdelle Braithwaite and Daniel Connelly) 3 v Toco Secondary 0
Trinity East (Canies Wilson) 1 v El Dorado 1
Arima 1 v Sangre Grande 1
Central Zone
Carapichaima 3 (Nathan James 12th, Tevin Dick 40th, Kerron Gray 78th) v Waterloo 1 (Djavan Archibald o.g. 17th)
Presentation 2 (Isaiah Tidd, o.g.) v Gasparillo 1
South Zone
Presentation (S'Do) 2 v Princes Town 1
Shiva 0 v St Benedict's 0
Vessigny 4 (Marcus Joseph, Adesa Sorrillo, Aubrey David, Terrece Marshall) v Siparia 0
Tobago Zone
Roxborough 1 (Kurton Winchester 45th) v Signal Hill 1 (Shondell Morris 29th)
Mason Hall 0 v Scarborough 0
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