MALICK Secondary and Mucurapo Senior Comprehensive are tough football schools. Especially when they come face to face.
Yesterday afternoon at the Queen’s Park Oval, the game was again tight. And after 90 fluctuating minutes that produced four goals and a flying chair or two, the teams were all square.
The 2-2 draw helped pull some of the challengers in the North Zone of the BWIA Secondary Schools Football League race back to leaders Malick.
St Mary’s College plunged 1999 champions St Anthony’s College into further crisis when they shut them out 2-0 at Westmoorings.
The goals by strikers Owicho Adogwa and Scott Sealy sent the “Tigers” to the bottom of the table. Up at Moka, Trinity College, previously last, got their second win of the season when a Hollis Brown penalty helped give them a 2-1 win over Queen’s Royal College.
The afternoon was also good for Tranquillity Secondary who moved to third when they beat Success/Laventille Composite 4-0.
But at the Queen’s Park Oval, while the aggregate was also four, the game was far less straightforward.
Eighteen minutes from full-time, Mucurapo substitute Sherwin Marcano brought the Oval alive when he capitalised on Malick goalkeeper Kevin Graham’s mistake of dropping a right-side freekick, to put his team in front a second time. And high in the Lindsay Grant stand to the west, his schoolmates tried make a score of their own.
Brax! Brax! One, two chairs hit the concrete cycle track below where the Malick posse were gathered.
The crash almost sparked a clash between the opposing students. Luckily some quick work by teachers averted real trouble.
Before tempers had cooled, though, Kareem Allard had drawn Malick level again from another freekick. The game was moving quickly now. It had become a different animal from the one which was going sleepily along when the second half began.
Up to then, a scrappy match seemed headed for a dull stalemate.
The two sides have struggled to score goals this year, neither the forward line nor the midfield being able to provide the attacking punch their coaches would prefer.
Malick, though, have in skipper Devon Jorsling a capable one.
Shouldering the responsibility of leadership, the striker was often the provider, creating chances with his keen eye for an opening and his accurate passing.
But there was still nothing for Jorsling and Malick to show when “Compre” hit the target.
A counter-attack saw second half substitute, lively Kevon Carter, striking his shot past Graham from close range in the 69th minute. The match now changed character, the passes and the running becoming more urgent. And finally, some Jorsling work bore fruit four minutes later. Collecting the ball in a central position just outside the penalty area, he slipped a neat ball out to the right side of the box where unmarked Sabir Guerra drilled an angled shot into the far corner.
Eighteen minutes from the end, though, Graham’s mistake and Marcano’s finish tested Malick’s resolve again.
But eight minutes later, with the mini melee in the stands just fizzling, the leaders responded again. A foul on Jorsling on the edge of the area produced a freekick. And direct from the spot kick, Allard drove a low shot through the Mucurapo wall.
The Malick celebration was lively enough. Another test was passed, even though not with flying colours.
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