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Thu, Mar

CELEBRATIONS Members of the Pleasantville Secondary School captured the Girls Intercol National football title after they defeated Signal Hill Secondary 2-0 at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva, yesterday.
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Alex­cia Ali's name will ring long and loud in the Pleas­antville com­mu­ni­ty in the com­ing days, af­ter her hat-trick guid­ed Pleas­antville Sec­ondary School to its first Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League (SS­FL) Co­ca-Co­la Na­tion­al In­ter­col ti­tle, beat­ing Sig­nal Hill Sec­ondary 3-0 in the fi­nal at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um in Cou­va, yes­ter­day.

Af­ter a de­mor­al­is­ing ex­pe­ri­ence in the fi­nal last year in which the school was beat­en 8-0 by Bish­ops, the south­ern­ers looked like a re­newed team and threat­ened from the first whis­tle. Sig­nal Hill's bat­tling ef­fort was ham­pered on­ly by their in­abil­i­ty to con­vert the chances that came its way.

Af­ter a goal­less first half, Ali, who was a thorn for the de­fend­ers ear­li­er, pro­duced light­ing quick speed to pounce on to a left-side cross by Chris­sy Mitchell in the 46th minute, and with both de­fend­ers and goal­keep­er Aaliyah Al­varez was beat­en, Ali then fired the ball in­to an emp­ty net for the lead.

Lat­er, Ali made it 2-0 from a long ball that de­fend­er Je­lese Alexan­der strug­gled to clear and Ali skil­ful­ly lobbed the ball over the ad­vanc­ing goalie for the sec­ond goal.

The vis­i­tors did not give up though but at­tacks from cap­tain Ashante Camp­bell, Twin­kle Thomas and Gamelia Wal­dron were thwart­ed by a stur­dy Pleas­antville de­fence.

But their ef­forts were killed when Ali was re­leased down the right side and her pow­er­ful low shot squeezed in al­though Al­varez got her hands to it.

At the blast of the fi­nal whis­tle, Pleas­antville's fans and sup­port­ers erupt­ed in­to wild cel­e­bra­tions to ac­knowl­edge the ef­forts of the girls who had been on­ly on their sec­ond fi­nal in the In­ter­col.

How­ev­er, it was Pleas­antville's third ti­tle of the sea­son, first be­ing crowned the South Zone cham­pi­on af­ter play­ing un­beat­en in the six-team com­pe­ti­tion then co­in­ci­den­tal­ly topped Sig­nal Hill in the Big Five fi­nal, 2-0 with Ali and Mitchell scor­ing that af­fair.

RELATED NEWS

Ali’s triple seals Pleasantville’s first Intercol Crown.
By Niickolai Madray (Newsday).


ALEXCIA Ali scored a sizzling second half hat-trick over Signal Hill to seal the Shell/First Citizens Bank sponsored Girls Intercol title for Pleasantville Secondary, yesterday, at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva. In the first match of the double header, Ali announced herself on the highest stage of school football by putting on an MVP performance and left the the field to a standing ovation from the spectators.

After a stalemate first half, which ended 0-0, with both sides feeling out their opponents, Ali came out the dressing room determined to leave with the title. Scoring her first goal in the 46th minute, she got on the end of a cross delivered from the left flank by Kayla Maillard and the striker made no mistake in finding the back of the net. Ali added her second item of the game in the 58th minute when she took control of the ball between two defenders before neatly lobbing the goalkeeper. She then completed her hat-trick and secured the victory for P’ville in the 72nd minute by unleashing a powerful shot which stung the hands of Signal Hill’s goal-keeper, Aalyiah Alavrez, before the ball reached into the back of the net. Signal Hill got their opportunities late in the game but Pleasantville showed their resistant defending once more as they rounded off the season by only conceding in one game.

Speaking after the game, the midfielder said, “Usually, when we face tough opponents, the coach uses my speed to penetrate their defence. It is an amazing achievement for the entire team to win this title for our school and community for the first time.” She continued, “It was an honour to score these goals and I hope this encourages other young girls to enjoy the beautiful game.” Pleasantville’s head coach, Joel Maloney, elaborated on the tactical switch he made during the half by detailing, “The team went out there and executed everything to perfection. We found it difficult to unlock Signal Hill in the first half so we made changes in the dressing room to counter what was happening on the field and it worked in our favour. Ali’s hat-trick was the icing on the cake.”

(Teams)

Pleasantville Secondary (4-2-3-1): 1.Akyla Walcott (GK); 14.Curissa Joseph, 7.Latifha Pascall (C), 18.Jhaney Simon, 6.Shawnelle Rose; 4.Shackeme Buntin, 8.Jasandra Joseph; 11.Chrissy Mitchell, 9.Alexcia Ali (16.Celine Hypolite), 5.Corysa Joseph (12.Kayla Garcia); 10.Aaliyah Pascall (19.Kimberley Stewart).

Unused Substitutes: 22.Jerica Brereton (GK), 2.Dalisha Brawthwaite, 15.Ariel Stoute, 13.Amelia Thomas.

Coach: Joel Maloney

Signal Hill Secondary (4-4-1-1); 1.Aaliyah Alvarez (GK); 12.J’nae Harris, 5.Derisha Bristol, 13.Tyra Myers, 4.Jelese Alexander; 18.Twinkle Thomas, 8.Salatina Searles, 10.Gamelia Waldron, 15.Dilleasia Nicholson; 11.Celine Loraine; 17.Ashante Campbell.

Unused Substitutes: 3.Makaila Joseph, 14.Gamie Waldron, 19.Ariel Adams, 20.Kristiana Gibbs.

Coach: Ray Mitchell