St George’s edge Charlestown in thriller
… to face Chase Academy in zone final tomorrow

DEFENDING Georgetown zone champions St George’s Secondary staved off a strong challenge from their nemesis Charlestown Secondary, to come away with a 2-1 victory, while setting up a zone final date with Chase Academy tomorrow in this year’s fourth annual Digicel Inter-Secondary School Football Championships.

Playing at the Guyana Defence Force Base Camp Ayanganna ground, St George’s got two first-half goals from Okeri Codrington (17th) and Adolph George (35th) to all but seal the win, despite seeing their opponents, who had defeated the highly favoured Georgetown Technical Institute the previous day, get a solitary strike from Omari James in the 66th minute.
At the Beterverwagting ground, Chase inflicted a 4-0 defeat on East Ruimveldt Secondary, with Daniel Ross (21st), Ozeal Small (33rd), Kareem Knights (53rd) and Shamar Barrow (64th) finding the back of the net for the tournament’s debutants.
St George’s and Charlestown started the contest cautiously, as both sides looked to assert themselves in the wet conditions, with water settling in approximately 75% of the playing area. Both coaches shouted instructions and tactics from the sidelines.
A Robby McCloggan shot from inside the box, went just wide of Charlestown’s uprights in the 15th minute of play, before Codrington stepped up to take a free kick from just outside the box, after McCloggan was brought down, beating Marvin Carter to his right even though he had a four-man wall set up.
Spurred on by the goal, St George’s started an all-out attack on their opponents, with Codrington and Quincy Lawrence traversing the wings like the good old days of Guyana Airways Corporation, creating trouble for Charlestown’s defence and Carter in goal.
A Lawrence shot from the same spot where Codrington took his free kick and scored, was parried for a corner by Carter and shortly after, the eventual champions got their second goal, when a long ball from Lawrence found an unmarked McCloggan.
Displaying an unselfish attitude, the diminutive striker worked his way into the box before making a gem of a pass to Adolph George, who beat Carter to his right with a well-placed shot in the 35th minute, to spark off celebrations among his teammates on and off the field of play.
Resuming the second half with a comfortable two-goal lead, many felt that St George’s would have relaxed and allowed their opponents, who had the Atlantic Ocean breeze on their backs, to bring the game to them, but that was not so.
Several attacks were made at Charlestown’s goal area and were it not for the sporadic efforts of Carter, along with James, Aroydy Bradford and Trevor Jones, the margin of victory for St George’s would have been larger than the final result indicated.
Bradford worked his way deep inside St. George’s half during the 50th minute of play after receiving a caution, but the combined effort of Codrington and Lawrence, prevented him from getting a shot off, while a Carter free kick was well handled by Royston Dublin in goal for St George’s.
However, James reduced the deficit to one in the 66th minute, when he collected a pass from Jones, moved to the left of the box and beat Dublin on his far post with a well-placed shot, to re-energise his teammates.
Certainly they were revived through James’ goal, but St George’s were bent on maintaining their lead and status as champions, which they managed to do when the final whistle was blown, in the presence of the Alpha United team, who were waiting to use the facility for a practice session ahead of the CFU Club Championships encounter.
St George’s will now put their Georgetown zone championship title on the line when they go up against Chase at the same venue from 14:00hrs tomorrow, with the winners advancing to the quarterfinals of the tournament.
The overall winner of this year’s tournament will collect $1M which will go towards a project within their school that will be beneficial to the students. Members of the teams who reached the quarterfinals, including coaches and teachers, will all receive Smartphones.
Also for this year’s tournament, the second-, third- and fourth-placed finishers are set to receive $600 000, $400 000 and $250 000, which will all go towards a project in the respective schools, while all zone champions will be rewarded with a prize of $100 000 that will go towards a project in the school, even if they do not advance to the overall final.

(By Calvin Roberts)