Santa Flora Government were crowned Atlantic National Primary Schools Football League boys champion after beating Tobago’s Bon Accord 2-0 in the finals yesterday at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo.
In the girls final, St Agnes beat Cumana by a similar margin. Santa Flora, runners up for the past two years, endured early pressure from the Tobagonians, whose striker Jordan Reid was a thorn throughout but could not get the ball past goal keeper Denzil Smith.
Santa Flora eventually settled and had two close attempts from striker Mikel Charls who continuously made deep runs on the counter attack and kept the defenders on their toes but neither team could take the lead in the first half.
Santa Flora eventually got the opener in the 56th minute from mid fielder Dillion Subnaik whose 20-yard shot lobbed over Bon Accord goal keeper Sherwin Cox to give Santa flora the 1-0 lead.
Santa Flora went further ahead two minutes later when Cox parried a Subnaik freekick from on top the 18-yard box but defender Anthony Singh was on spot to tap home.
Bon Accord tried relentlessly to draw level in the final minutes with efforts from midfielder Josh Leacock but were unable to do so. In the girls final, 2010 St Agnes Anglican enjoyed the better of the midfield battle before Hayleen Jack’s double decided the result.
Jack got the opener from a left-sided cross which she guided in the goal while her second was a low-driven cross which gave the goalkeeper no chance.
At the prize-giving ceremony, Derek Daniel, Atlantic’s Branding and Communications Manager commended the performance of all the schools.
Daniel said that Atlantic would once again be staging its post-competition initiative, the Atlantic Football Development Camp, which was introduced in 2010 and which will be held this year from December 2–4.
The top 50 boy and girl footballers in the League will be selected to participate, and English football club Manchester United will once again be providing coaches for the initiative.
Results
St Agnes 2 (Hayleen Jack) v Cumana 0
Santa Flora 2 ( Anthony Singh, Dillion Subnaik) v Bon Accord 0