Defending champs booted from Milo U-18

THERE will be new champions for this year’s Milo Schools Football tournament following the departure of defending champions Chase Academy yesterday.
They were out-done 1-0 by Sir Leon’s Lesson under lights at the Ministry of Education ground, Carifesta Avenue.

In a game precariously perched, the first half belonged to the eventual winners who had the best chance on goal, a swirling low shot that beat the keeper but found the upright instead of the net.
While the chances were few, Chase managed good runs but failed to finish them – their striker slipping at the mouth of goal.

Their lack of cohesive play and failure in the final third also did not help their cause, with skipper Jeremy Garrett sharing the same view.
“We just didn’t finish in the final third,” he said, adding, “We (the team) have young players who will be back next year, but they need to learn to lose in order to learn to win.”
On the opposing side, while there were even less chances for Sir Leon’s, they were scoring chances which required the Chase defence to work.

In spite of that, the half ended goal-less and the fans were enjoying every minute of the tenseness.
On the resumption, the game carried almost the same rhythm, Chase building well but then giving the ball away in the final third and Sir Leon’s getting a sprinkling of runs on the opposition.

However, Leon’s Teon Forde bullied his way down the left side of the field, pushing past two defenders and unleashing a cannonball into the right side of the net.
Chase were horrified.
The crowd could not be contained and Forde wheeled off in celebration. “At that time, I was overjoyed. We knew one goal would have beaten them. We knew it.”

With just over 10 minutes to go and losing, Chase went on the attack, their keeper in one instance rushing to the centre line to ensure they kept possession. They raided constantly without result, landing several on the mouth of goal but none getting past the keeper.
As the clock counted down, it slowly began to sink in; a dynasty had been felled. And when the whistle sounded to confirm the result, the crowd poured onto the field in jubilation for Sir Leon’s.

In the earlier match, Buxton Youth Developers were a runaway train against Masters Academy beating them 4-0. Teshaun Gordon (45th, 78th and 83rd) scored a hat-trick while Shamar Scott scored in the 27th minute.

Those two teams are through to the semi-finals with the other two to be decided today when Lodge Secondary play Pure Masters from 14:00hrs and Morgan Learning Centre go up against Annandale from 16:00hrs