Daniel Joseph’s goal gets ‘Gustine’ to final.
By: Kwame Williams (Guardian).[/size]
Despite losing its zonal league crown, St Augustine Senior Comprehensive made it clear yesterday at the Larry Gomes Stadium in Malabar that it is still king of the East.
A 36th minute strike from Daniel Joseph earned “the Green Machine” a 1-0 win over the team to which it lost its crown as East champions, San Juan Senior Comprehensive, in the first semifinal of the National RBTT Intercol competition.
It was the third time this season that St Augustine has got the better of San Juan, winning in the league (5-1) and the East Intercol final (2-1).
As expected, the action was end-to-end from the opening whistle. San Juan, trying the shake off the moniker of “big stage chokers”, surprisingly had a confident start and looked up to the task.
So too did its opponents, who came close to scoring in the 11th minute, when midfielder Elton John scraped the top of the crossbar with a dipping free-kick from just outside the 18-yard box.
The teams were evenly matched throughout most of the first period, but it was the two-time Intercol winner, St Augustine, who took the lead.
Ryan O’Neil picked up the ball on the right flank and neatly rounded his marker before hitting a bouncing shot, which San Juan goalie Glenroy Samuel failed to handle cleanly. Joseph was on hand to bang in the rebound.
John nearly doubled his team’s lead about four minutes from the interval, but again his shot was kept out by the crossbar, with Samuel as good as beaten.
In the 43rd minute, San Juan striker Anthony Romain had a chance to get the boys from Bourg Mulatresse back into the contest, but from inside the six-yard box he struck his volley wide of the mark. This was the first of two near misses for him on either side of the break.
Shortly after the resumption, the skilful John went close for a third time.
San Juan, in search of the equaliser, had the better of the exchanges in the second half, yet seemed to lack the urgency required to get that elusive goal. Kerry Daniel could have been San Juan’s hero in the 65th, but blasted his shot wide of the mark after goalie Jonathon Charles allowed a cross from Elijah Manners to bubble out of his grasp.
Manners hit the post with a shot from more than 20 yards in the 74th, but that was the last good goal-scoring chance for the Big Five runners-up.
St Augustine now awaits the winner of today’s second semifinal, which will see North Intercol winner, Fatima, taking on Big Five and South Intercol champs Naparima College at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella.
Bereaux, Alonzo score doubles for Providence.
By: Kwame Williams (Guardian).[/size]
Cassie-Marie Bereaux and Ashlee Alonzo each scored doubles for Providence Girls’ Secondary, as the North Zone league champs whipped Central table-topper Union Claxton Bay 6-1, in the Girls’ Secondary Schools Football League Big Four competition yesterday, at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva.
Providence, coming off a 3-1 win over St Joseph’s Convent in an RBTT Intercol semifinal last Saturday, wasted no time in taking the match to its opponent. And it was no surprise when it took the lead in the 20th minute through Bereaux, who put through by midfielder Shereen Bart, trapped the ball in the 18-yard box and shot past UCB goalkeeper Isis Elcock.
Three minutes before the half, Sade Newark grabbed the equaliser for UCB, scoring from a well-taken free-kick.
Less than ten minutes after the resumption, Jaime Garcia regained the lead for the girls from Belmont.
It was soon 3-1, when Bereaux banged in the rebound from an Alonzo free-kick in the 50th minute.
Alonzo, the scorer of all three goals in Saturday’s win, got her name on the score-sheet in the 53rd, audaciously finding the net from 35 yards with a curling right-footed free-kick.
Right-winger Lyndsay Murray made it 5-1 in the 56th, before Alonzo capped off the the scoring with another right foot drive from just outside the box. But for the heroics of Elcock, the winniung margin would have been greater.
