LAST season’s South Zone intercol champs Fyzabad Composite survived a testing first round match against Princes Town Senior Secondary but came away victors by a 3-1 margin at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella, yesterday.
Princes Town had the majority of the scoring opportunities but it was Fyzabad that made their limited chances count.
The champs struck first when Princes Town keeper Rondell Renwick failed to hold onto a Denzil Richardson free-kick, Jonathan Sylvester pounced on the rebound to net the game’s first goal in the 19th minute. This score held until half time.
Princes Town looked the stronger team early in the second half and should have gotten the equaliser in the 55th minute.
Joel Richards delivered a beautiful ball through to Keron Neptune but his close range left footed strike was brilliantly kept out by custodian Keron Ragoo.
Neptune made amends 11 minutes later when a deflected ball found him.
This time the forward’s left foot did not let him down as he powered a shot low past a diving Ragoo to level the scores.
Fyzabad regained the lead in the 74th minute as some atrocious attempts to clear by the Princes Town defence allowed substitute Andre Quashie to collect a loose ball inside the area, leaving him the simple task of rounding the keeper and tapping the ball across the goalline.
Tension grew towards the end and a brawl almost broke out between players on the field.
Soon after that situation subsided, Shavon Frederick sealed the victory for "Fyzo" with a break away goal in injury time.
They will now meet Naparima in a rematch of last year’s South zone Intercol semi-finals which Fyzabad won 2-1. Naparima humbled Presentation College 4-0 in the second game of the double-header courtesy of goals by Javed Mohammed, Adisa Connel, Renato Ramlochan and an own-goal by Justin Edwards.
Malabar booked a spot in the East zonal semi-finals after a narrow 1-0 victory over Hillview at the Larry Gomes Stadium, Arima.
David Powers got the winner for the hosts, who will face San Juan Secondary on Tuesday.
Bishop’s High School also progressed to the Tobago semis following a 2-1 win over Mason Hall at Shaw Park.
Quarter-final action ends tomorrow with two matches in the North zone.
Defending zonal champs Mucurapo will oppose Trinity at QRC Ground while the Royalians will meet Malick at Fatima Ground. Both games will begin at 3.30 pm.