Seon Shipley sank a pair of goals to put Naparima College into the final of the South Zone in the Coca Cola Inter-Col Tournament yesterday in the opening match of a double-header at the Mannie Ramjohn Stadium in Marabella.
Naparima, the Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) Premier Division champion, comfortably defeated Pleasantville Secondary, 4-0 and will resume its rivalry with Presentation College, which edged St Benedict’s College, 1-0, in the later match.
It was Kodel Frontin getting the opening item for Naparima as early as the ninth minute putting the former South Zone Intercol champion on the backfoot. Pleasantville tried to get an equaliser but it never came.
On the other end though, Shipley did well in putting his team up 2-0, finding the back of the net in the 38th minute. The score remained unchanged when the teams went in at the half.
As in the first half, Naparima got a goal in early on with Shipley returning five minutes into the second session to give his team a 3-0 advantage.
Pleasantville's struggle continued and was unable to lessen its deficit despite doing well to hold off the Naparima attack later on in the second half. That was until national Under-20 player Mark Ramdeen put the "icing on the cake" in the 72nd minute and earned Naparima, the first spot in the final.
However, it was not as easy for the other finalist, Presentation, which did enough to get the narrow one-goal victory over St Benedict's in the "Classic" South Zone InterCol rivalry.
The match appeared to be heading to a goalless draw and likely to be decided by penalty kicks but Jaiye Sheppard came to the rescue, scoring the winner for Presentation in the 86th minute, to grab the other vacant spot in the finale, which is carded for Monday
Up in North, host team, East Mucurapo proved to a worthy opponent for Trinity College Moka, holding them to a goalless draw at the end of regulation and added on time.
However, it was Trinity Moka prevailing with a 5-4 win on penalty kicks.
Trinity Moka will meet St Anthony's College in the North Zone InterCol final after the latter coolly sealed a 4-1 over Queen's Royal College (QRC) at Serpentine Road in Port-of-Spain.
Today, the Central Zone InterCol semifinals will take place at Couva East ground, with the opening match of the doubleheader kicking off at 3 pm.