St Mary's College downed old rivals Queen's Royal College (QRC) 3-1 yesterday in the Coca Cola InterCol North Zone at QRC's Hayes Street, St Clair Ground to set up a semi-final meeting with defending champions St Anthony's College.
The Westmoorings "Tigers" of St Anthony's booked their spot with a 9-0 home thrashing of Senior Division winners Diego Martin North Secondary.
Ajani Clarence notched a double for St Anthony's, while seven other players—including captain Dwight Ceballo and Jamali Garcia from the penalty spot—registered their names on the score sheet.
The "Saints" of Port of Spain, though, endured a tougher road to the semi-finals before Jelani Christopher settled the affair in their favour two minutes from time.
Before that, St Mary's enjoyed a 2-0 lead at half-time, but a Duane Muckette free kick caused them many nervous second-half minutes.
For much of the opening period QRC looked likelier to score, but Muckette and company found it hard to get their efforts on target. St Mary's took at least 20 minutes to get into the match, but once they did, the hosts found themselves in defensive mode.
The real turning point in the match was a ten-minute period of sustained pressure, which ended in the first goal. In the 32nd, St Mary's were awarded a penalty, a 50-50 call, when QRC goalkeeper Nicholas Dick launched at the ball and seemed to make contact with CIC striker Rashad Hyacinth.
Hyacinth banged in another goal in the 41st, given space and time to collect a diagonal ball on the right, and picked his spot sweetly, low into the far corner of the net.
The double sting was too much for the "Royalians", but they seemed to have recovered enough to see out the first half and even had a shot on goal through Seth Holder before the break.
A stern talking to from head coach Keith Eddy resulted in a more focussed QRC team in the second half.
In fact, Muckette spearheaded their second-half efforts with determination, forcing two saves from St Mary's goalkeeper Raheem Belgrave before he found success in the 60th.
QRC were awarded a free kick from 30 metres out and Muckette expertly curled the ball low into Dick's near post to spark celebrations.
The enthusiastic supporters behind St Mary's bench suddenly found their voices, urging on their team with that familiar chant: "A-raz a-taz, a-raz a-taz, a zim boom bah! Come on, St Mary's!"
That inspiration might have spurred their team on through the next ten minutes of pressure, before St Mary's took over again.
"Q-R-C! Q-R-C!" their opponents chanted. But their team had begun to fade and St Mary's picked up the momentum in the final ten minutes.
One of their raids finally bore fruit in the 88th through the connection of substitutes Anthony Palmer and Etienne Bellemare down the right flank, as Palmer placed one through for his teammate to whip into the area, where Christopher met the ball first time from close range.
For QRC, that was all she wrote, while, for St Mary's, their stiffest test of the season lies in wait on Wednesday at the very same venue of yesterday's conquest over their adversaries from Westmoorings.