St. Ann’s Rangers Women’s Football Team celebrated the Women’s League Football (WoLF) First Division North Zone on Sunday, and head coach Jason Spence is now eyeing the overall First Division title which also promotes the winner to the Premier Division.
Akeisha De La Rosa scored twice and Avenell Issac once at the Trinity Ground, Moka, to earn the St. Ann’s club (13 points) a 3-0 win over Tobago All Stars and top the group one point ahead of Step by Step (12 points).
While Tobago finished with 8 points and Queen’s Park Football Club at the bottom without a point.
“We had a lot of celebrations,” said Spence. “We went ahead and organized a little affair with non-alcoholic wines and so on because of the confidence we had before the game.”
It was the first time in Rangers 32-year history, that the TT Pro League club pulled together a Women’s team and already enjoys success on debut.
The squad includes former T&T internationals Analise Cummings and Issac as the experienced duo, while Maya Matouk, Darya Rodriguez, Samara Lezama, Kara De Souza, Tyricia Mc Donald, Astride Joseph, Tayna Harris, Gabriella Ryan, Tysha-Lee Spicer, Shanie Winner, N’Neka Harewood, Thaiz Smith, Shannon Archer, Chelsea-Marie Spence, Dhaakira Solomon, Keidi Brathwaite, Leah-Tisha Pope, Mequilla Hoyte, Asha Jones, De La Rosa, Tenesha Palmer, Della Joseph, Amanda Garcia, Ami-Joy Daniel, Sharain Cummings and Avion Gay completing Spence’s roster.
“I got my talent base from the secondary schools and the north zone area,” explained the Rangers Women’s Team coach. “I basically skimmed the cream of the crop to make up my squad.”
But as Spence and his team heads into preparation for the upcoming Big 8 matches, defender Thaiz Smith will not. The central defender suffered a broken right leg about 15 minutes inside the match against Tobago All Stars. Both the tibia and fibula broke in a collision according to Spence who added that Sunday had a lot of mixed emotions.
North Zone runner-up Step by Step also moves into the Big 8 phase of the WoLF First Division which takes the shape of a knockout with the first and second place in the North, East and South/Central Zones and the best two third place teams making up the eight teams, separated into two groups.
Group 1 will host the winner East Zone, winner South Zone, runner-up North Zone and one of the two best Third Place finishers, while Group 2 includes the winner North Zone, runner-up East Zone, runner-up South Zone and the other best Third Place finisher.
“I think our chances are great,” said Spence over his team’s chances to take win the First Division title.
“I think we have grown well. The girls are very committed and now we are seeing a lot of improvement from when we started. They are now playing the way I want them to play.”
Women’s Football LeagueFirst Division (Big 8)
Quarter Final Round
Winner South vs Runner-up North (match 1)
Winner East vs Best 3rd Place (match 2)
Winner North vs Runner-up South (match 3)
Runner-up East vs Best 3rd Place (match 4)
Semi Final Round
Winner 1 vs Winner 4
Winner 2 vs Winner 3
Third place and Final Round