St Augustine Secondary School, known popularly as ‘The Green Machine’ yesterday made a strong bid to repeat as East Zone Coca Cola InterCol champions by beating Valencia High 3-0 in the feature semi-final match of a double header at the Larry Gomes Stadium, Malabar Arima to qualify for the final next Monday at the same venue.
With the victory they will face San Juan North Secondary, who yesterday edged Trinity College East in the opening game 2-1 in the other semifinal encounter.
The St Augustine boys got a brace from the eventual Man of the Match Rahim Gordon in the 32nd and 81st minute to seal the victory. Kenton James and Zion Holder were the other scorers for the Green Machine while Akil Romero got the lone item for Valencia in the 42nd minute.
In the other game, Trinity East, the East Championship Division winners opened the scoring after just 10 minutes when Nickel Orr found the nets to raise his team’s hopes of an upset in the Intercol. The Michael Grayson-coached school went to the break with a 1-0 advantage, but they faced a revived San Juan outfit on the resumption when Ronaldo Boyce fired in the equalizer in the 62nd minute.
The game seem heading for over time when the prolific Brandon Semper sealed the win for San Juan with his goal in the 89th minute. Semper was later named Man of the Match, but there were no feelings of sorrow from coach Grayson who told the Trinidad Guardian his team had achieved what it had set about to.
“At the beginning of the season we said we wanted to return to the Premier Division and reach as far as possible in the Coca Cola InterCol and we have done that. We won the Championship Division and reached the semifinal in the InterCol, so I think we did well” Grayson said after the game.
He noted “The boys had to make some adjustments playing for a coach like me and I think they have really worked hard for the season, so I am really satisfied with their performance.”
17