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Thu, Nov

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The Co­ca Co­la Na­tion­al In­ter­col Se­mi-Fi­nals will kick off on Friday with a dou­ble­head­er at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um in Bal­main, Cou­va fea­tur­ing two teams which are yet to taste what it is like to be crowned na­tion­al cham­pi­ons.

The first match-up will see Cen­tral cham­pi­ons Cara­pichaima East Sec­ondary chas­ing its first na­tion­al ti­tle tak­ing on reign­ing cham­pi­on school of the East San Juan North Sec­ondary.

When these two met in the league they were in­sep­a­ra­ble and in­ca­pable of breach­ing each oth­er’s de­fence with a goal­less af­fair. How­ev­er, when the clock strikes 3 pm to­day on­ly one will move on.

Cara­pichaima's road to the fi­nal-four was paved with nine goals, a 7-1 win over Cou­va East Sec­ondary in the zon­al semis and a 2-1 vic­to­ry over Ch­agua­nas North Sec­ondary in the zon­al ti­tle match.

San Juan North, on the oth­er hand, scored 13 times in its ef­forts to re­peat as zon­al cham­pi­ons, a 7-0 thump­ing of Mal­abar Sec­ondary, 3-0 over Man­zanil­la Sec­ondary in the semi­fi­nal and a 3-1 ti­tle-win­ning per­for­mance over Trin­i­ty Col­lege East.

The San Juan boys will have ex­pe­ri­ence on their side, af­ter win­ning the na­tion­al ti­tle in 2016 and los­ing fi­nal­ist in 2017 and 2018.

Two hours lat­er, the sec­ond semi­fi­nal will com­mence be­tween Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege and St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege. Iron­i­cal­ly, these two teams al­so drew goal­less in the league and had a cou­ple of dif­fi­cult en­coun­ters in the quest for ti­tle ho­n­ours.

Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege which has nev­er won a na­tion­al In­ter­col ti­tle brushed aside Point Fortin Sec­ondary 2-0 in their zon­al quar­ters then St Bene­dict’s Col­lege 3-0 in the semis. The du­el with na­tion­al cham­pi­on school Na­pari­ma Col­lege went down to penal­ties af­ter reg­u­la­tion time failed to break a 1-1 dead­lock. Pre­sen­ta­tion won 4-3 from spot-kicks to cel­e­brate its first ma­jor vic­to­ry of the sea­son.

St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege dis­patched Tran­quil­li­ty Sec­ondary 8-1 be­fore scrap­ing past Mal­ick Sec­ondary 4-3 on penal­ties af­ter they were lev­el 2-2 at the end of reg­u­la­tion time. In their zon­al fi­nal their top marks­man Kai Phillip got a late win­ner to send East Mu­cu­rapo Sec­ondary pack­ing with a 2-1 vic­to­ry. The Tigers went to the na­tion­al quar­ter­fi­nal where rav­ished the To­ba­go champs Spey­side High 4-0.

Se­mi-fi­nals (Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, Cou­va)

Cara­pichaima East Sec­ondary vs San Juan North Sec­ondary, 3 pm

Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege vs St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege, 5 pm


SOURCE: T&T Guardian