St Mary’s College opened their account in the Premier Division of the new Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) season with a 3-0 win over Trinity College East at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, while the defending champions Naparima College were able to follow suit with a 2-0 win over Queen’s Royal College in the late match.
“Naps” doubled their advantage in the 77th minute with Judah St Louis’ peach of a free kick nestling into the top corner.
In the opening match, Trinity East showed that they have the potential to be a serious nuisance this season. They should have raced into the lead less than 30 seconds into the match when Dareem Daniel was put clean through but the Saint’s goalkeeper Kristopher Donaldson stopped the tame shot.
St Mary’s made them pay minutes later as Ethan Shim had the easiest of tap-ins in the ninth minute, making Trinity custodian Emmanuel John rue failing to deal with the initial shot.
St Mary’s would then go on to dominate the proceedings for the following ten minutes—a period where they should have scored twice. Tyler Kirton was the biggest culprit; slicing wide after stretching to reach a pass from Daniel Conocchiari.
Trinity would eventually settle, and were entertaining if not as technically fluent as their opponents.
Kemuel Keshwar who played on the right side of the Trinity defence, was beaten a few times by Shim, but had a solid performance for the rest of the half, cutting off CIC’s main threat.
Adrian Charles and Andre Raymond pulled the strings in the Trinity midfield, while Kishion Hackshaw was a constant pest, creating a couple divots in the green carpet in the first half with his speed on the left flank; beating Nicholas Emmanuel for pace.
On the hour, CIC made Trinity rue taking off their best player in Daniel, who came off for Stephan Ealie.
Chinua Bernard rounded the keeper—his first touches of the match coming off the bench—and took his time before picking his spot with two defenders on the line. The chance came when Aaron Skeene left Trinity’s Nickel Orr on his back near the centre circle to lead the counter-attack.
St Mary’s kept the pressure up with Shim, forcing John to make a save on the goal-line with his inner thigh. Shim would then force another point-blank save from John, who was determined to keep his teammates in a match that was slipping away from them.
Trinity lost their cohesion after that goal which meant the Saints went on to create a number of chances and dominate the match.
They went further behind ahead with a hotly-contested penalty awarded to the Saints after substitute Ealie felled his opponent in the box. Shim completed his double, hitting it confidently to John’s right in the 86th minute to give the Saints their three points. And a good start.
Reshuffled Tigers hope to pass ‘Book’ test.
he Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) is well underway and, today, last year’s Premier Division runners-up, St Anthony’s College, will be headed to Bourg Mulatresse for a tough opener against the team that finished behind them, San Juan North Secondary, on the second day of action.
The new format of the competition, which has been in effect since last year, sees the top 15 teams from both Trinidad and Tobago locking horns over two months.
The Tigers, who are multiple North Zone and InterCol champions, are currently in a transitional phase, which required them to reshuffle their experienced players.
“We are using senior players in defence to work with the younger defenders,” said long-standing coach Nigel Grovesnor. Andrew Rullow is one of these players who has had to make the shift into defence.
Grovesnor has been trying to keep his players focused on the new season.
“I want the players to be free and relaxed,” he said.
With the experienced playmaker Shem Clauzel returning to spearhead their attack, St Anthony’s could pose some problems for the San Juan defence. The boys from Bourg Mulatresse have their own ace up their sleeve, however.
Brent Sam was a menace last season in attack and will be returning to the fray this year, hopefully, with the same form that took his team to third in the inaugural Premier Division season.
San Juan North however are also in transition.
“We have a young team and we want to build on last year and see how best we can improve,” said Phillip Fraser, coach of the team.
The coach admitted their focus will be on national InterCol action this year as the league may pose to be a stern challenge for his young contingent. It remains to be seen if this is to downplay their true potential, however, as he intends to cash in on the strengths of their goal-scoring skipper, Sam.
“We are trying to build a team around him to get a synchronised effort this year,” he said.
SSFL Premier Division Results
(Wednesday September 9)
St Mary’s College 3 (Ethan Shim 9, 86-Pen, China Bernard 60) v Trinity College East 0
QRC 0 v Naparima College 2 (Jarred Dass 35, Judah St Louis 76)
Teams
QRC: 1.Jadel Poon-Lewis; 2.Tishad Selvon, 4.Anfernee Stokes, 5.Tevin Lessey, 3.Janos Lashley; 18.Adrian Constantine; 13.Demetri Dunkley, 6.Keshawn Villafana (16.Mickel Walkes 61st), 10.Jahrique Stewart, 7.Joash Williams; 15.John-Paul Rochford.
Unused substitutes: 8.Taariq Campbell, 9.Shemar De Gannes, 11.Tereque Hadley, 23.Roger Wason, 22.Saifallah Farrag, 17.Jerald John.
Coach: Dexter Gill
Naparima College: 22.Levi Fernandez; 20.Rondell Payne, 16.Anderson Toussaint, 19.Stephon Smith, 4.Nicholas Thomas; 6.Judah St Louis, 8.Michael Basdeo (capt); 11.Shane Sandy; 23.Renaldo Francois (10.Jeremiah Kezar 55th), 9.Shobal Celestine (7.Akinola Gregory 55th), 12.Jarred Dass (3.Khris Stroud 81st).
Unused substitutes: 1.Darriel Kurjah (GK), 2.Andrews Tyrike, 13.Seon Shippley, 21.Justin Sadoo.
Coach: Angus Eve
Referee: Keilon Bacchus
Today’s matches:
All matches begin at 4 p.m.
Speyside High vs Carapichaima East, Speyside
Trinity Moka vs St Benedict’s, Moka
Presentation Sando vs Fatima, Prsentation
Shiva Boys vs St Augustine, Penal
San Juan North vs St Anthony’s, San Juan
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