Another year of Intercol action came to an end last Tuesday at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva, with a new king being crowned.
The national competition kicked off on November 20, with the first two quarterfinals taking place at the Dwight Yorke Stadium in Tobago and the Mannie Ramjohn Stadium in Marabella.
Presentation College (San Fernando), runner up in the South Intercol final, travelled to Tobago to face Scarborough Secondary, the Tobago champ, in what was expected to be a close affair. It was anything but, with the southerners emerging as comfortable 4-0 victors.
In Marabella, Naparima, looking to make a clean sweep of all titles after winning the Big Five and doing the South Zone league and Intercol double, took on North Zone runner up, St Anthony’s College. It was expected to be an easy win for “Naps”, but the Tigers obviously had no plans of making an early exit as they pulled off a surprise 2-1 result to advance to the semifinal stage.
The next two quarterfinals saw Mucurapo facing East Zone runner-up Arima Senior Comprehensive and East champion, St Augustine Senior Comprehensive, doing battle with Central king Carapichaima.
The free-flowing “Compre” made light work of its opponent, striker Mutar Taylor notching a hattrick as Mucurapo racked up an impressive 6-0 win at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo.
“Caps” then recorded the shock of the round, getting past the “Green Machine” 2-1 at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Macoya.
The centralites continued their Cinderella run in the competition, booking a place in the final only for the second time in their history, when they defeated St Anthony’s 2-1 on a Neil Woodruffe goal.
A Kevin Molino hattrick gave the classy “Compre” a 3-1 win over Presentation in the other semifinal.
Mucurapo went into the final highly favoured to snare the coveted title, as they had been playing some of the most attractive football seen in the Secondary Schools Football League this year.
The boys from Central, on the other hand, were hoping to cap off their fairytale run by bagging their first ever Intercol trophy, as well as erase the memory of their 5-1 loss to Belmont Secondary in the 1992 final. And with the match being played in their own back yard they were to have the support to help them achieve their goal.
Both teams started the match nervously but Mucurapo had the better of the early exchanges. They had a few good looks at goal but the normally clinical Mucurapo strike force failed to put away their chances in the first half.
Johan Peltier gave the North side a deserved lead in the 70th minute, but within two minutes the dogged Carapichaima drew level through Shaquill Holder. “Caps” were undone just two minutes after they got back into the contest, Mutar Taylor again coming up big for his side.
Terrance Clarke then put a seal on the victory in the 85th, scoring a gem of a free-kick to ensure that Mucurapo would claim its first national Intercol crown in 25 years.
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