THE New Amsterdam Multilateral School (NAMS) booked their place in the second semifinal of the Patrick ‘Patto’ April Under-17 memorial football tournament for schools in the NA/Canje district, when they blanked the Tutorial Academy Secondary School (TASS) 3-2 in a heated encounter, which renewed the rivalry between the South New Amsterdam school teams, at the Scott’s school ground in New Amsterdam. Jaleel Fraser of TASS sent a small but vocal crowd into frenzy when he netted in the 7th minute. However, the never-say-die attitude of NAMS striker Jamal Butts saw him equalise in the 20th minute. It was a fierce battle for possession onwards until the whistle blew at halftime with the score 1-1. On resumption, Lomar Reid of TASS put his team in the lead once again by booting one in the 37th minute. Desperation stepped in, as NAMS tried to take possession of the ball, resulting in Jamal Butts been shown the red card for challenging the referee, who had initially shown him the yellow card. Playing under pressure with one man short, Raheem Damon took full advantage of a penalty shot in the 43rd minute to level the scores 2-2. After much dribbling and tackling in the tussle for possession of the ball, Godfrey Coward capitalised on foul play inside of the box from his opposition, by scoring off a penalty shot in the 57th minute to send TASS crashing out of the knockout tournament. Today, there will be the semifinal double- header with Vryman’s Erven Secondary School taking on the Berbice Educational Institute at 15:00hrs and Berbice High School opposing NAMS at 16:30 hrs. The final will be contested at the same venue at 16:00hrs tomorrow. (Michael Khan)