St. Mary’s College created a bit of history as they became the first Senior Division team to ever make it to an Intercol Zonal Final. National U-17 midfielder Sean De Silva scored two goals of exceptional quality to march the ‘Saints’ into the North Zone final against Malick Senior Comprehensive on Thursday.
Taylor beat the ‘Saints’ left back and calmly slipped a pass to the waiting Molino who had the simple task of passing the ball into the goal with goalkeeper Matthew Jardim drawn out of position.
St. Mary’s wasted no time in giving their response, and two minutes later they equalized when Sean De Silva slipped a pass for forward Hakeem King who ran at four defenders before hammering a left footed shot past the dive of Mucurapo goalkeeper Michael Duff.
The momentum was clearly in the ‘Saints’ favor and they continued to push Mucurapo on the back foot.
In the 30th minute a poor defensive clearance was collected by Sean De Silva, who wasted no time in unleashing a right footed shot which curled its way into the right corner of the goal past the full length dive of goalkeeper Duff.
St. Mary’s could have had a third mere minutes after, when Leston Paul faked a shot and dragged past four Mucurapo defenders, only to see his left footed shot go inches past the far post.
As the half drew to a close, St. Mary’s seemed to run out of steam. Mucurapo had weathered a huge storm and were only down one goal. The second half began with the same breath taking pace as the first.
Mucurapo came out with a renewed sense of purpose and equalized in less than two minutes when Ateister Cambridge ran at the heart of the St. Mary’s defense, chipped a pass to Terrance Clarke who chested the ball down for Mutar Taylor to thump into the bottom left hand corner of the goal, giving ‘Saints’ keeper Jardim no chance.
It was the turn of St. Mary’s College to weather a Mucurapo storm. A combination of desperate last ditched defending, good orthodox and unorthodox goalkeeping kept Mucurapo at bay.
A game like this deserved something special to separate the two teams. With eight minutes left in the match, Sean De Silva produced a moment of sheer brilliance that was worthy of finishing such an enthralling encounter.
Again it was a poor defense clearance that caused the ball to drop nicely for De Silva, who from 30 yards out hit a shot which dipped and swerved into the top right hand corner of the goal. Mucurapo goalkeeper Michael Duff could only get his fingertips to the ball, but could not stop it from hitting the back of the net much to the disbelief of his teammates.
The St. Mary’s College faithful went wild, the goal that turned out to be the winner was indeed something special.
St. Mary’s College Coach Jason Edwards was ecstatic, yet kept things in perspective.
“As happy as the guys are, we realize that we still have some work to do.”
“We ran out of steam coming down to the end of the first half, and even in the second. In some ways were fortunate to survive the periods of pressure Mucurapo put on us, but it’s in games like this you need that extra bit of quality to pull you through. Tonight Sean (De Silva) was that extra bit of quality that made all the difference.”
St. Mary’s College will face Malick Senior Comprehensive in the 2007 RBTT North Zone Intercol Final on Thursday 15th November at the Hasley Crawford Stadium.
The fairy tale story continues….
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