Dominating Fatima defeat St. Augustine 2-0.
By: Justin Henry (schoolsoccernet).[/size]
St. Augustine’s quest to win all four trophies, for which they were competing, ended on Saturday at the hands of the defending National Intercol Champions Fatima College. Fatima College ran out 2-0 victors at the Hasley Crawford Stadium in a game marred by some dubious officiating. Fatima were the superior team on the day, and St. Augustine was clearly missing their inspirational captain, Elton John and struggled to create goal scoring chances against a well disciplined Fatima defense.
Fatima’s first opportunity came as early as the 6th minute when a Kierron Marin corner resulted in a loose ball in the penalty area which was met by Sherron Joseph, but his attempt was cleared off the line by the St. Augustine defense. St. Augustine were not as fortunate in the 15th minute however, when Joseph played a defense splitting pass to his teammate Jevon Morris in the penalty box and his low and powerful, right-footed shot gave Joel Johnson absolutely no chance in the St. Augustine goal. In the 40th minute, Fatima again had the ball in the back of the net, when Johnson saved a Joseph shot and Marin poked the rebound into the goal, but he was ruled to be offside in a tight decision.
Fatima continued to threaten the St. Augustine goal and could have been up by two or three goals by the end of the first half, but the half ended up 1-0 in favor of Fatima. After the break St. Augustine came out in search of the equalizer and began attacking more, but it was still Fatima that managed to score in the 60th minute. A Marin attempt from just outside the penalty area, was charged down by a St. Augustine defender and ball broke kindly in the box for a charging Jean-Luc Rochford and his precise side footed shot headed into the back of the net, just out of Johnson’s reach giving the Fatima team a much desired safety cushion of two goals.
St. Augustine continued pressing looking for the equalizer and won a penalty in the 73rd minute when Elijah Belgrave foolishly brought down Brandon Rupert in the penalty area when he was in a non-threatening position. A visibly nervous Ryan O’Neil stepped up to take it, but Fatima’s young goalkeeper Andrew Poon-King came up huge denying O’Neil by saving the attempt and pushing it out for a corner. Fatima nearly added a third in the dying moments of the match when substitute Chad DeFraitas drove a low hard shot to the left of Gustine keeper Joel Johnson, but his effort came crashing off of the post.
Winning coach, Errol McFarlane was extremely pleased with his team’s efforts claiming that they played a virtually flawless game. The goals were well taken, and his defense held up making it extremely difficult for St. Augustine to get anything out of the contest. He was also impressed with the manner in which his players dealt with very physical opponents. When queried about his preference between Naparima and San Juan in the final, he said it wouldn’t matter. They are both good teams, but he hopes his troops can put in the same performance they did today and they can retain their crown.
