Naparima stays ahead by 4 points

How­ev­er, Na­pari­ma still main­tained the top po­si­tion on the 15-team stand­ings af­ter ti­tle hope­fuls St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege were ham­mered 4-0 by a ris­ing San Juan North Sec­ondary in San Juan.

Na­pari­ma’s in­abil­i­ty to score on the day moved them one point fur­ther to 30 points, while the Tigers main­tained sec­ond, ahead of Pre­sen­ta­tion by just a two-goal dif­fer­en­tial, as both teams are on 26 points each.

On a day of up­sets, Cara­pichaima East Sec­ondary School were eye­ing a pos­si­ble move in­to third place but were beat­en by strug­gling St Bene­dict’s Col­lege 2-1 at home.

How­ev­er, out at San Juan, the home team turned the once-vi­cious Tigers out­fit in­to tamed pussy­cats, cour­tesy of a dou­ble strike by sub­sti­tute Daniel Best and an out­stand­ing over­all per­for­mance by Isa­iah Chase, Re­nal­do Boyce, Chris­ton Mitchell and Jor­dan Brit­to and com­pa­ny in front of cheer­ing fans made up of stu­dent, teach­ers and res­i­dents of the com­mu­ni­ty.

Both teams set­tled quick­ly in the game but heavy un­der­foot con­di­tions, cou­pled with San Juan’s phys­i­cal dom­i­nance, ap­peared to be the Tigers' main hur­dle dur­ing the con­test. The home team, coached by their in­flu­en­tial for­mer strik­er/mid­field­er Mar­vin Oliv­er, was off to a fly­ing start from a build-up on the left side that looked any­thing but dan­ger­ous in the 11th minute.

Chase, who tor­ment­ed the St An­tho­ny’s de­fence in the ear­ly mo­ments, calm­ly rolled a pass to Kedell Jones in the cen­tre and from some 20 yards out, the lat­ter un­leashed a blis­ter­ing dri­ve that flew past Josi­ah Perez in the St An­tho­ny’s goal.

The Tigers, who have lost just once for the sea­son, should have equalised in the 21st. Kiron Man­swell was picked out by Kahim Thomas with a pass from right to left. Be­fore Ma­lik Far­ri­er could reach Thomas, the lat­ter moved in­to a one-on-one po­si­tion with goal­keep­er Em­manuel John but with the goal wide open he hit wide.

The Tigers strug­gled to pro­duce the flu­ent-pass­ing game they are known for and it cost them dear­ly. The home team saw two chances in­side the penal­ty area by Tyrique Suther­land and Chase squan­dered and it ap­peared they were head­ing to a 1-0 San Juan ad­van­tage to the half-time in­ter­val.

On the stroke of half-time Boyce and El­isha Gar­cia ap­peared to be in an off-side po­si­tion when Chase, on the left side, lift­ed a pass to them. With the ref­er­ee wav­ing play-on, Boyce calm­ly slot­ted the ball past the on­rush­ing Perez for a 2-0 lead be­fore the break.

There­after it was all San Juan, fur­ther­ing their ad­van­tage in the 48th minute with a goal from Best. The lit­tle strik­er was at the end of a neat­ly thread­ed ball from an over-lap­ping Brit­to, weav­ing his way through some three play­ers be­fore find­ing Best lurk­ing on the right side. Best then slipped the ball be­yond Perez to the far post for a 3-0 lead.

St An­tho­ny’s, hav­ing to come from be­hind, just could not find their goal-scor­ing boots on the day, though find­ing them­selves in dan­ger­ous po­si­tions. Over-lap­ping de­fend­er Ian Cowie came close with a thun­der­ous strike from out­side but an ac­ro­bat­ic John pushed it wide.

In­stead, Best ham­mered the nail in­to the Tigers cof­fin when Boyce got away from the Tigers de­fence but his shot was pushed to the top of the area, for Best to meet it sweet­ly with a pow­er­ful low grounder that flew past the cus­to­di­an for his team’s fourth goal in the 86th minute to com­plete a 4-0 win.

Mean­while, at Fa­ti­ma Ground, St Mary’s Col­lege were con­fined to rel­e­ga­tion to the Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion in 2020 af­ter be­ing beat­en 4-0 by East Mu­cu­rapo.

(Teams - by Wired868.com)

Presentation San F’do (4-1-4-1): 1.Isaiah Williams (GK); 2.Nigel Carraby, 5.Justin Cornwall, 3.Luke Charles, 6.Zion Allen; 15.Aleem Barclay (C); 17.Nkosi Charles, 10.Ackeel Jacob, 9.Jaiye Sheppard, 20.Naeem Bisnath (13.Dantaye Gilbert); 16.Jardel Sinclair (11.Adica Ash).

Head Coach: Shawn Cooper

Naparima College (4-2-3-1): 1.Levi Fernandez (GK) (C); 5.Atiba Lewis, 4.Tyrike Andrews, 2.Thaj Neptune, 12.Asukile Christopher; 8.Kodel Frontin, 6.Shoaib Khan; 19.Isa Bramble (14.Molik Khan), 17.Nathaniel Perouse (9.Ezekiel Kesar),10.Decklan Marcelle (7.Mark Ramdeen); 20.Seon Shippley.

Head Coach: Angus Eve

Wired868 Man of the Match: Isaiah Williams (Presentation)

WEDNES­DAY'S RE­SULTS

San Juan North Sec­ondary 4 (Kedell Jones 11th, Re­nal­do Boyce 21st, Daniel Best 48th, 86th) v St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege 0

Mal­ick Sec­ondary 2 (Jabari Williams, Nick­ell Alexan­der) v Queen’s Roy­al Col­lege 0

Trin­i­ty Col­lege, Mo­ka 3 (Temes­gn Tizere, Jahiem Mar­shall, Keishaughn Williams) v St. Au­gus­tine Sec­ondary 1 (Jerin Mel­oney)

St. Bene­dict’s Col­lege 2 (Ac­k­eem Ma­son, Gesi­ah Bish­op) v Cara­pichia­ma East Sec­ondary 1 (Bran­don St Clair)

East Mu­cu­rapo Sec­ondary 4 (Ja­heim Patrick, Zion Mc Leod 2, Ter­riq Mar­tin) v St Mary’s Col­lege 0

Pleas­antville Sec­ondary 0 v Trin­i­ty Col­lege East 0

Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege 0 v Na­pari­ma Col­lege 0

Speyside Secondary are on a bye

LAT­EST TEAM STAND­ING

SCHOOLS*P*W*L*D*GF*GA*GD*PTS
1*Na­pari­ma Col­lege*12*9*0*3*30*10*+20*30
2*St. An­tho­ny’s Col­lege*12*8*2*2*37*15*+22*26
3*Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege*11*9*1*2*26*6*+20*26
4*East Mu­cu­rapo Sec­ondary*12*7*2*3*27*11*+16*24
5*Cara­pichaima East Sec­ondary*12*6*2*4*22*16*+6*22
6*San Juan North Sec­ondary*12*6*4*2*30*10*+20*20
7*Queen’s Roy­al Col­lege*12*6*4*1*22*26*-4*19
8*Pleas­antville Sec­ondary*12*4*6*2*15*17*-2*14
9*St. Au­gus­tine Sec­ondary*12*3*5*4*29*24*+5*13
10*Mal­ick Sec­ondary*13*4*8*1*20*27*-7*13
11*St. Bene­dict’s Col­lege*12*4*7*1*14*21*-7*13
12*Trin­i­ty Col­lege East*12*3*6*3*14*19*-5*12
13*Spey­side High School*12*3*7*2*18*37*-19*11
14*Trin­i­ty Col­lege, Mo­ka*12*2*9*1*16*41*-25*7
15*St. Mary’s Col­lege*12*1*10*1*5*43*-38*4

Upcoming Fixtures

(Saturday 26 October)
[All games kick off at 3.30pm]

St Anthony’s College v Carapichaima East at Westmoorings;

St Augustine Secondary v East Mucurapo at St Augustine;

Malick Secondary v Presentation (San F’do) at Hasely Crawford;

Naparima College v San Juan North at Lewis Street;

Speyside Secondary v St Mary’s College at Speyside;

Trinity Moka v Trinity East at Moka;

St Benedict’s College v Pleasantville Secondary at Mannie Ramjohn;

QRC are on a bye.

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ALTHOUGH reigning Shell/First Citizens Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) Premier Division champions, Naparima College, could only muster up a 0-0 scoreline against southern rivals Presentation College, at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella, yesterday, they still managed to extend their lead atop the standings courtesy a 4-0 drubbing of second placed St Anthony’s College via San Juan North.

Naps remain in pole position on 30 points with two games to go, having salvaged a point against third-ranked Pres (26 points) in yesterday’s scrappy encounter. St Anthony’s, also on 26 points, maintain their second place position on the table as they boast a significant goal difference ahead of the Presentation Lions.

Dubbed SSFL’s “Southern Clasico,” yesterday’s clash of the southern giants was far from it. Both teams continuously battled in midfield, but neither was able to tactically penetrate their opposing custodians. Presentation’s talisman, Ackeel Jacob, was either smartly defended by the Naparima backline or saw his efforts go wide of the target. Additionally, Naps Shoaib Khan’s attempts also shared a similar fate.

However, the introduction of talented Naparima striker Mark Ramdeen in the second half brought some flair to the 2018 winners. Ramdeen did make a positive impact but was still unable to aid his teammates to find the opening goal. Naparima’s closest chance of finding the back of the net came from a Ramdeen free kick which rattled the Presentation crossbar but swooped safely by goalie, Isaiah Williams. Both teams tried valiantly to the end, but neither side showed the finishing touch to snatch a late go-ahead goal.

After the match, Naparima coach Angus Eve, was still pleased with the drawn result. However, Eve was quietly confident that his unit would bring their “A” game against an in-form San Juan when they play host at home on Lewis Street, San Fernando, on Saturday.

“It was a good result for us because we didn’t lose and also secured a precious point. Being unbeaten is not too important at this stage, our priority is winning the league, but this game keeps us on course. There is no pressure but we have to win on Saturday, We’re at home against San Juan so that should augur well for us,” he explained.

The former national footballer also admitted that his team showed some signs of fatigue during the latter half of the match. “We had some really good chances that we could have probably taken. The guys are positive even though some of the legs ‘went’ today so we had to move around a couple of the guys which is normal at this time of the season. We’re just going to recuperate and prepare for San Juan on Saturday. There’s no anxiety, we just have to do our jobs,” he added.

St Mary’s College were relegated to the championship division after falling 4-0 to East Mucurapo, at Fatima Ground, in Mucurapo. St Mary’s are at the bottom of the 15-team standings with four points and even if the Saints win their remaining two matches they will not avoid relegation. The bottom two teams will be relegated at the end of the season, but three teams from the championship will earn promotion to have an even number of teams next season.

At the Queen’s Royal College (QRC) Ground in St Clair, the home team fell 2-0 to Malick Secondary. After the match, Malick were clapping and singing knowing that the victory almost guarantees that they will avoid relegation this season. Malick were in 13th position before yesterday’s match, but jumped to tenth place with the win. Jabari Williams gave Malick the lead in the 25th minute and against the run of play in the second half Nickell Alexander sealed the contest with a 79th minute item. QRC dropped from sixth to seventh place with the loss. After the win, Malick head coach Anthony Bartholomew was satisfied with his team’s energy throughout the match and spoke about the importance of the win.

“Normally in all the games we would start off starting playing this tempo in the late (stages)...so I think we know the purpose of this game is to survive. It is not no baby thing going on here. This tournament is the biggest and staying up is most important for us.”

The Malick coach said this is the first time in over ten years the school is playing in the top flight and is hoping the team can rebuild in the coming seasons.

In other results, San Juan North moved to sixth place after crushing second placed St Anthony’s College 4-0 at Bourg Mulatresse in San Juan.

St Benedict’s jumped to 11th position after recording a 2-1 win over fifth placed Carapichaima East Secondary, 14th placed Trinity College (Moka) defeated mid-table St Augustine Secondary 3-1 and Pleasantville Secondary and Trinity College East played to a 0-0 draw.