THANKS to Romario Welcome’s helmet trick, the Institute of Professional Education (IPE) inflicted a 6-1 defeat on Diamond Secondary, in their recent fixture of this year’s fourth annual Digicel Inter-Secondary School Football Championships.Also recording victories in the tournament, which has close to $5M in cash and prizes up for grabs, were Tucville Secondary and Bygeval Secondary, while at the Wisburg ground in Linden, the eagerly anticipated semi-final clash between two-time defending champions Christianburg Wismar Secondary and New Silver City Secondary was rained out before the opening whistle.
Playing at the Grove Community Centre ground, Welcome opened the score for the eventual victors, when he found the back of the net in the 2nd minute and followed it up with two more goals in the 23rd and 37th minute, which along with Damion Jones’ 40th minute strike handed IPE a 4-0 lead at lemon time.
On the resumption of play, Welcome completed his helmet trick in the 50th minute, while his teammate Shemar Alexander scored the sixth and final goal and his lone of the contest for IPE in the 70th minute, before Gon Alfred got a consolation strike for Diamond in the 87th minute.
At the Georgetown Football Club ground, Tucville Secondary, through a brace from Kiefer Brandt, issued marching orders to David Rose Secondary with a 4-1 victory score line.
Brandt scored his double in the 35th and 74th minutes of play, which was backed by solitary strikes from Shemar Bascombe (37th) and Sherwin Reid (52nd) for Tucville, who saw Teen Fordyce scoring the game’s opening for David Rose Secondary in the 23rd minute.
At the Beterverwagting ground on the East Coast of Demerara, Bygeval defeated La Bonne Intention Secondary 4-0, with Kelvin James (29th and 33rd), Gary Jordan (19th) and Shafeer Sanichar (71st) being the players responsible for Bygeval’s win.
Meanwhile, the rain ruined semifinal encounter that was scheduled for the Wisburg Secondary School ground last Friday, will be replayed today under a double header fixture, with the two times defending champions CWSS facing New Silver City in the first matchup, followed by Kwakwani Secondary against Mackenzie High in the second. The winners will clash in the zone finals at the same venue tomorrow. (Calvin Roberts)