… WSS and NATI meet in third place playoff
FOLLOWING their enthralling and at times exciting victories over Waramadong Secondary School (WSS) and New Amsterdam Technical Institute (NATI), Christianburg/Wismar Secondary School (CWSS) and Government Technical Institute will meet in the final of the inaugural Digicel-sponsored nationwide Inter-Secondary School football tournament.
In the first game of the double-header semifinals which was played at the Georgetown Cricket Club ground, CWSS stormed back from 1-3 down to defeat WSS 3-2 on penalty kicks, while GTI stamped their authority over their Berbice counterparts with a 3-2 victory.
A fair-size but vociferous crowd made up mostly of supporters for WSS, witnessed Clarence Huggins, who has been a thorn in the flesh of his team’s defence throughout the tournament, send his team into the lead in the 12th minute of play.
Instead of being daunted by the goal, WSS, led by Sievert Roland, displayed several tantalising dribbles with both feet, and, along with Tyson McNaughton, Riddick Williams and Alwayne Francis, made several raids on their opponents’ goal area.
Fittingly, it was McNaughton who snatched the equaliser for WSS, when he received a wonderful pass from Roland who had weaved his way into the 18-yard box – something he was doing at will throughout the match – and beat CWSS custodian Yannick Simon with a well-placed shot to his right.
CWSS refused to be broken-hearted by the goal and made several raids on their opponents’ goal, but poor finishing and at times excessive dribbling from their strikers, including Huggins, Allan Halley and Kwesi Quintin, prevented them from going further ahead.
Added to that, WSS custodian Gerald Isaacs had a magnificent afternoon between the uprights for his team, affecting numerous saves on both sides of the field, much to the delight of their supporters, who cheered every defensive effort that was used to stop the team from the mining town of Linden.
WSS went ahead in the 40th minute through Seon Ambrose with a well-placed free kick while two minutes later, Francis made it 3-1 in favour of WSS, who ended the first half with an unchanged scoreline.
The second half was no different from the first, with CWSS missing numerous scoring opportunities, while Isaacs continued to impress between the uprights, until a Huggins header from an Omeion Wills’ cross beat him on the first post.
As he normally does for Milerock in the Upper Demerara Sub-Association league tournament, Wills overlapped from the left back position to beat him with a well-placed shot to his right to bring his team level with three goals in the second minute of overtime.
Penalty kicks were used to pick a winner, from which CWSS advanced with a 3-2 victory, leaving WSS to battle for the third place playoff.
The feature matchup between GTI and NATI was a dull affair in comparison to the first, for the first 25 minutes of the game, until Eon Alleyne who plays at the first division level for Fruta Conquerors, beat NATI custodian to send his team into the lead.
A see-saw battle ensued after Alleyne’s goal, as GTI’s defence led by Alleyne who received worthy support from Joshua Browne, Denzil Henry, Treon Adams and Phillip Benjamin, kept a tight rein on NATI’s top marksman of the tournament Devon James.
As was evident with CWSS, both teams failed to convert the chances they created, while GTI’s Keifer Adams struck the cross bar from the left hand side of the box in the dying stages of the first half which ended with his team’s lead intact.
Browne completed his double in the second half, when he stepped to the spot and took the penalty kick that was given by referee Mark Younge, when NATI custodian Deron Wallerson committed an unsportsmanlike act on one of GTI’s strikers, to make it two-nil in the 56th minute.
James refused to give up and scored back-to-back goals in the 73rd and 79th minutes of the match, with his second coming from a well-placed free kick that left GTI custodian Nkosie Barker with no chance.
In-between James’ double, Jermine Junor who had scored 20 goals in the tournament prior to yesterday’s match for GTI, made it 21 when he converted a magnificent pass from Jahal Greaves in the 76th minute to head into tomorrow’s final as the leading goalscorer.
Tomorrow’s action will kick off from 16:00hrs with the third-place battle between NATI and WSS, while GTI and CWSS will battle for supremacy from 18:00hrs, to bring the curtain down on a tournament that was tremendously organised in its inaugural year.