Determination was the key for East Mucurapo Secondary as they defeated St Mary’s College 3-2 on penalties to lift the Secondary Schools Football League Coca Cola North Zone InterCol title at Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain yesterday.
The two teams who finished on opposite ends of the BGTT Premier Division League competition, played to a 0-0 regulation time score before Mucurapo—who will be demoted to the Championship Division at the end of the season—held their nerve to come out on top for their first North Zone InterCol title since 2004.
Tekay Hoyce slotted home the first kick from the penalty sport before Travell Edwards missed the second to give CIC a lifeline.
However Malique Quow and Kazim Donald both scored, while goalkeeper Aaron Enil stopped two shots to seal the title and give their school something to celebrate at the end of a tough campaign.
“We went into the InterCol with a positive attitude,” Mucurapo manager Brinsley Hudson told the Express following the win.
“I think we had more determination and we believed in ourselves more,” he added.
“Not being able to stay up in the Premier League, we wanted to come away with something so we really trained for this and we had a good plan coming into the game,” the Mucurapo manager explained.
“It was a heavy ground and they had more possession and we had some opportunities to score which we did not capitalise on but we knew that we had the best Under-20 goal keeper in the country so we always had confidence that if we had to go into a penalty situation, we would prevail.
“We played our game and they played theirs and at times we got caught up playing their game as well but we settled in the second half more and we created some chances but we still could not put them away.
“We know St Mary’s are a solid bunch, they have some strong players and we like the passing game so we knew once we kept the ball on the ground we felt we could come away with a win,” Hudson added.