Defending zonal InterCol champion Presentation College of San Fernando took one step further to retaining its crown after sealing a comfortable 4-2 victory over St Benedict’s College, in the semifinal match of the Coca-Cola South Zone InterCol competition, yesterday.
Presentation was the second team to seal a spot in the South title match after Shiva Boys Hindu College opened the Manny Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella, double-header with an easy 4-0 win at the expense of Pleasantville Secondary.
The opening match saw Presentation take control from the onset, before St Benedict’s attempted to mount a late comeback.
In only the sixth, the run-away South Zone league champion took the lead through a strike from Mathias Hall. It took less than 20 minutes for “Pres” to record its second, this time from Keagan Ellis, who pipped in his second of the season. With the score locked at 2-0 at the half time, Presentation was in cruise control. In the 57th minute, the lead swelled to 3-0 with the school and zonal top scorer Shackiel Henry bagging yet another item to his name.
It was Henry’s second goal in as many matches, following up from this effort against recently promoted Mayaro Secondary, which lost 4-1 against the champions in Wednesday’s quarterfinal. Henry, who was on duty with the national U-20 team, while his team lost to eventual champion Carapichaima East in the Big-Five preliminary match, recorded his 27th item for the school this season, yesterday.
After Henry’s goal, St Benedict’s surged forward and managed to pull two goals back thanks to standout attacker Yafeu Rougier, who scored in the 74th and 81st minutes, but it was not enough as they dropped to a successive third loss to “Pres” this season.
In the other South Zone semifinal, Shiva Boys also defeated its opponent Pleasantville for the third time this season, this time by the biggest margin, 4-0. All goals came from different scorers. Shavon Diaz and Judah Peters scored in the first half, followed by effort from Nathaniel Garcia and a penalty from Dwight pope.
In the East, St Augustine and defending zonal InterCol champion Arima North will meet in the final after completing contrasting wins over El Dorado West and Trinity College East, respectively. St Augustine opened with an expected 4-1 triumph over “El Do”, while Arima North required a penalty shootout to defeat Trinity.
Antonio Auguste scored a last minute effort to take the match straight to stop kicks, after Marcus Gomez seemingly won the match with a goal in the 80th minute. However, with the players lined up for their spot kicks, a missed Trinity effort, meant that Gomez would win the match if he converted. He did, which sealed final action for Arima North yet again.
The final will be contested on Monday at the Larry Gomez Stadium, from 4 pm. The South Zone final between Presentation and Shiva, will be at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium, at 4 pm.
Today’s InterCol Results
East Semifinals
St Augustine 4 (Maurice Ford 83rd, Nicholas Marcano 58th, Ricardo John 73rd, 84th) v El Dorado West 1 (Stephon Lewis 83rd)
Arima North 1 (Marcus Gomez 80th) v Trinity College 1 (Antonio Auguste 90th pen)
After Penalties - Arima North 5 v Trinity College 4
South Semifinals
Shiva Boys 4 (Shavon Diaz 21st, Judah Peters 28th, Nathaniel Garcia 46th, Dwight Pope 82nd pen) v Pleasantville 0
Presentation College S/do 3 (Mathias Hall 6th, Keagan Ellis 23rd, Shackiel Henry 57th) v St Benedict’s 2 (Yafeu Rougier 74th, 81st)
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