Hat-trick hero Zion Gray is ecstatic at winning his school’s first Milo U-18 Schools football title following a 5-1 drubbing of Buxton Youth Developers on Saturday evening.
Speaking to the media under the stars at the Ministry of Education Ground, the eventual Most Valuable Player said that the feeling was surreal.

“The feeling is awesome. This is the first Milo championship that sir Leon Lesson has won and it’s a very awesome feeling,” He said.
“The strategy was to come out early, get a goal and then put Buxton under pressure so we could score more goals,” He added.

He continued, “We (Sir Leon Lessons) came out as one and played as one. The past couple weeks we have been training hard and everything that coachman thought us, we executed to win as one.”

And that they did. Gray scored the first of his hat-trick after tapping in from close range after teammate Julian Bamfield’s set piece was parried by the keeper.
Buxton’s Shamash London in the 16th minute levelled things up to silence the crowd on hand at the venue.

The game remained that way for almost the entire half. On the return, Gray carefully guided a headed chance into the right corner after a touchline cross.
Alwin Franklin netted in the 59th minute to carry the score to 3-1 before Gray completed his hat-trick in the 63rd minute and Teon Forde topped it off with a goal, two minutes into stoppage time to complete the 5-1 rout and help his team to their maiden Milo Schools’ Football Tournament victory.

Sir Leon Lessons pocketed $500,000 for winning the tournament while Buxton received $300,000, all of which will go towards a school project of their choice.
Tournament Co-Director, Troy Mendonca commended the winners for their performance as well as all the teams that participated in the competition.