PRESENTATION College and Scarborough Secondary will be going after the zonal double,when they contest the Central and Tobago Zones of the Secondary Schools Football League RBTT Inter-Col competition today.
But standing in the way of their goal will be bitter rivals - Carapichaima Senior Comprehensive and Signal Hill Senior Comprehensive, respectively.
Since the re-introduction of the Central Zone three years ago, Presentation College of Chaguanas has won both the league and zonal crowns, and coach Glenford Thomas is confident of completing a third sweep, at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva, in what shoulkd bea highly interesting match starting 4 o’clock.
Contacted yesterday Thomas said, “We have been able to win both titles for the past two seasons and we see no reason why we cannot achieve it again.”
A major concern for Thomas, however, is the recent drought in front of goals by his strikers, who netted 69 times in 10 league matches, and none in the last two games.
“In our zonal matches we scored a lot of goals, while I think we wasted too many chances against Scarborough in the “Big-Five” semifinal.
Back to help solve that problem for Presentation will be Anthony O’Garro, who wason a one-match suspended when his team won 4-0 (semi-final) against Tabaquite Composite.
O’Garro and strike partner Marvin Manswell are the team’s joint top scorers with 16 goals, while midfielder Deon Lewis has scored 10 times.
About his opponents Thomas said:
“As was shown in our two league matches (1-0 wins for each team), Carapichaima normally raise the level of their game when coming up against us, so we will also need to be at our best.”
Ganesh Ramlogan, a member of the Carapichaima technical staff, said:
“I don’t want to sound like I’m boasting, but we believe we have a reasonable chance against them.”
The Carapichaima players reached the final with a 1-0 win over Marabella Junior Secondary.
The winners of today’s final will meet East Zone double-crown champions, St Augustine Senior Comprehensive, in the national quarter-final.
Over in Tobago, familiar foes Scarborough and defending champions Signal Hill Senior Comprehensive meet for the right to the zonal title at the Dwight Yorke Stadium, Bacolet, also from 4 pm.
Scarborough advanced to the final with a 2-0 win over Bishop’s High School, while Signal Hill held off Roxborough Composite 3-2 ,in the other semifinal. The winner of today’s match will advance to the national quarter-finals.
Last year Signal Hill won 4-3 on penalty-kicks after a 0-0 deadlock and today, a close battle is expected ,although Scarborough will feel they have the edge, having defeated Signal Hill 3-1 in their round two league fixture.
Both teams battled to a 2-2 first round deadlock.
At stake for the Tobago zone winners, is a national quarter-final encounter with South Zone runner-up Vessigny High School on Friday ,at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella, from 3 pm.
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