Presentation beaten but stays out front

Team man­ag­er An­dre Ben­jamin said his team's fate still lies in its own hands, as the school need to win its two re­main­ing match­es against St An­tho­ny's Col­lege and San Juan North Sec­ondary to re­tain the ti­tle it won last year.

"Ku­dos to Na­pari­ma, they want­ed it more than us on the day, but we will be tak­ing our re­main­ing match­es one game at a time. In our next game against St An­tho­ny's we have to step it up a notch to en­sure max­i­mum points," Ben­jamin ex­plained.

Pre­sen­ta­tion drew first blood when the team's pro­lif­ic strik­er Jor­dan Ri­ley scored the open­ing goal from the penal­ty spot in the 17th minute to put the host ahead. The vis­i­tors lost key cen­tral de­fend­er Justin Corn­wall ear­ly in the sec­ond half, for his sec­ond book­able of­fence, which left the team vul­ner­a­ble there­after. With a man down Naps equalised soon af­ter from Daquon Fos­ter, be­fore Is­sa Bram­ble and Seon Ship­ley sealed the win with item late in the half, tak­ing them one point be­hind the lead­ers.

Af­ter­wards, An­gus Eve, the Naps coach said he would like to see St An­tho­ny's and San Juan North play Pres with the same fight and qual­i­ty as they dis­played against his team. "I know they both have the tools to play well against Pre­sen­ta­tion, but the ques­tion is if they would pro­duce the goods on the day," said Eve.

The for­mer na­tion­al mid­field­er and coach be­lieves in spite of his team's tri­umph yes­ter­day, Pres still has the ti­tle to win, say­ing it is theirs to lose. "The most we can do now is main­tain the pres­sure on the lead­ers and hope that if they slip up we will be wait­ing to cap­i­tal­ize," Eve con­clud­ed.

Mean­while, third place San Juan North al­so dropped two valu­able points in a 1-1 tie with St An­tho­ny's at West moor­ings which took them to 26 points, but Queen's Roy­al Col­lege (QRC) main­tained their sev­enth po­si­tion by edg­ing Fa­ti­ma 1-0, cour­tesy a late Dar­lon Gup­py strike.

(Teams)

Naparima College (4-2-3-1): 1.Levi Fernandez (GK); 5.Daquon Foster, 4.Tyrike Andrews, 12.Christopher Asukile, 15.Marvin Waldrop; 6.Shoaib Khan, 17. Nathaniel Perouse; 19.Isa Bramble (11.Kern Cedeno), 10.Decklan Marcelle, 8.Kodel Frontin (captain) (9.Ezekiel Kesar); 20.Seon Shippley (24.Jabari Lee).

Unused Substitutes: 30.Enrique Changiah (GK), 3.Chakim Guy, 14.Molik Khan, 18.Caleb Gaspar.

Coach: Angus Eve

Presentation College (San F’do) (4-3-3): 28.Jabari Gray (GK) (captain); 3.Juaval Roberts, 18.Nkosi Chance, 27.Darnell Hospedales, 2.Zion Allen; 5.Justin Cornwall,15.Aleem Barclay,6.Ackeel Jacob; 10.Jordan Riley (29.Jardel Sinclair), 7.Omri Baird (20.Shakeem Julien), 9.Jaiye Sheppard (24.Adica Ash).

Unused Substitutes: 1.Isaiah Williams (GK), 13.Markus Mason, 19.Terrell Noel, 22.Amaal Julien, 23.Christoph John.

Coach: Shawn Cooper

RE­SULTS

Naps 3  (Daquon Foster 51', Isa Bramble 65', Seon Shippley 69') vs Pres 1 (Jor­dan Ri­ley 14')

QRC 1 (Dar­lon Gup­py) vs Fa­ti­ma 0

St An­tho­ny's 1 (Kiron Manswell 40') vs San Juan 1 Renaldo Boyce 28') 

St Bene­dict's 1 (Aaron Rod­ney 60') vs Cara­pichaima 1 (Kevon Williams 90')

St Mary's 2 (Nan­ton Gabriel 10', Tyrese Spicer 42') vs East Mu­cu­rapo 4 (Ja­heim Patrick 8', Zion Mc Leod 30', David Daniel 63', Ki­dane Lewis 69')

Trin­i­ty Mo­ka 3 (Temesgn Tezera [2], Kai Phillip) vs St Au­gus­tine 3 (Jelani Augustus 22, Kesean St Rose 23, Rivaldo Coryat 49)

Trin­i­ty East 2 (Daniel Lake 22, Jarved El­cock 46) vs Va­len­cia 2 (Andre Robinson 13, Zidan Liverpool 43)

SOURCE: T&T Guardian