Chase Academy, Annai Secondary set up mouth-watering Digicel Schools final tonight
FACE OFF! Chase Academy captain Jeremy Garrett and his rival from Annai Secondary
FACE OFF! Chase Academy captain Jeremy Garrett and his rival from Annai Secondary

ANNAI Secondary, located in a small village in the Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo Region of Guyana, is aiming to become the first team from the hinterland area to win the Digicel Schools Football tournament, but, standing in their way will be defending Champions, Chase Academy.

The two schools will collide today from 18.30hrs at the Leonora Track and Field Facility, to see who will win the seventh edition of Guyana’s most prestigious Schools Football tournament.

Chase Academy is the defending champions, while Annai will be playing in the finals for the first time.

In fact, both sides made their way to today’s show-down in dramatic fashion at Thurday’s semi-finals, which were also played at Leonora.

It took Chase Academy a 5-4 ‘Sudden-Death’ penalty-shootout to get over their arch nemesis and four-time champions, Christianburg/ Wismar Secondary (Multi), while Annai had to come from 4 – 0 down to beat Waramadong 7-5 in regular time.

Chase will be playing in their fourth consecutive final, winning once against the Christianburg Wismar Secondary.

The Linden-based school defeated Chase in the 2015 final, but the city side rebounded last year to beat ‘Multi’ 1 – 0 in the final at the Guyana National Stadium.

Chase’s Captain Jeremy Garrett touted Annai Secondary as one of the most difficult opposition, having faced them last year in the semi-finals.

From the look of things, Garrett will have to play flawless football in order for his team to beat Annai Secondary, since the Region 9 team would’ve proven that no lead is unassailable in their clash with previous finalist, Waramadong.

A strong representation from the Amerindian community is expected today at Leonora, and the two teams are promising the best Digicel Finals to-date.

Meanwhile, the third place game between Christianburg /Wismar Secondary and Waramadong will take things back to the 2013 finals and what started out as one of the top rivalries of the Digicel Schools football tournament.

It will be the first time that ‘Multi’ will not be playing in the finals of the tournament, following their loss to the Government Technical Institute (GTI) in the inaugural tournament, and to Chase Academy last year.

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