SANTA ROSA adorned themselves in glory last Sunday at the Mabaruma Community Centre ground when they defeated Port Kaituma 9-8 on sudden-death penalty kicks, crowning themselves as regional champions of Region One in this year’s Digicel Schools Football Championships.

Also landing regional titles on the same day in this year’s tournament were St George’s and Covent Garden Secondary Schools, who defeated Dolphin Secondary and Bladen Hall Secondary at the Ministry of Education and Beterverwagting grounds respectively.
In Mabaruma, the eventual victors went ahead in their enthralling contest which had a goalless first half, two minutes into the second half, courtesy of a Brendan Phillips goal that was scored from the penalty spot.
They increased that to two goals 10 minutes later, when Phillips sent a shot to the goal, which Port Kaituma custodian failed to hold onto, allowing an unmarked Dwayne Rebeiro to tuck the ball into the back of the net.
Following a see-saw battle between the two sides, Keith Fraser reduced Port Kaituma’s deficit to one goal, with his 76th minute strike, and 10 minutes later Ralph Parris lobbed one over Santa Rosa custodian to draw the scores level.
However, Phillips was not done and he pushed Santa Rosa ahead with his second goal, which was scored in the 90th minute, from a well-placed free kick that was taken from approximately 22 yards out, only to see Jamal James nullifying things with his injury time (90+2) goal.
With a scoreline that read 3-3 at the end of regulation time and 4-4 after the first set of penalty kicks, a sudden death shoot was the order of the day, for which a winner would have been decided and it was Santa Rosa who prevailed to take championship honours for Region One.
At the Ministry of Education ground, St George’s, the present Petra/Milo Under-20 champions, prevailed over a game Dolphin lineup 4-2 via penalty kicks following a nil-all scoreline to add the Georgetown Championship tag to their budding list of accolades, while Sheldon Chapman (5th) and Kesta Joseph (84th) were responsible for Covent Garden’s (the East Bank champs) win over Bladen Hall (East Coast).
All three teams will now turn their attention to the national playoffs which kick off tomorrow, with Santa Rosa taking on the Regional champions of Region 8 – Mahdia Secondary – at the Mabaruma Community Centre ground, while Covent Garden and West Demerara champions Leonora will do battle at a venue to be decided.