St Benedict’s edge St Anthony’s to extend SSFL lead

Derrel Garcia scored his third goal in two matches since his return from Spain to inspire St Benedict’s College to a 2-1 come-from-behind win over St Anthony’s College in a rescheduled match of the Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) Boys Premiership Division at Westmoorings on Monday.

With the win, their seventh in a row after drawing goalless with Arima North Secondary in their opener, St Benedict’s College, the 2022 champions carried their points tally to 22 from eight matches at the top of the 16-team standings, six clear of defending champions Fatima College.

At Westmoorings, St. Benedict’s began the livelier of both teams, forcing the host goalkeeper Josiah Morris into a few early saves.

However, against the run, the ‘Westmooring Tigers’ went ahead when the nippy Andell Fraser surged down the right side and whipped in a cross that was missed by two St. Benedict’s College defenders and fell to an unmarked Mordecai Ford at the far post, whose one-time left shot back across goal beat goalkeeper Thane Devenish.

With nine minutes left in the first half, Fraser thought he had doubled the lead for the host when he capped off a neat build-up by rounding Devenish and firing into an open net, but the goal was unconvincingly ruled out for off-side by the referee, Charlize Hood.

Three minutes later, Fraser and Jean-Marc Thomas then had chances to extend the lead for St. Anthony’s, but they were denied by the combination of Devenish and defenders Lyshaun Morris and Adam Pierre with last ditch tackles inside the six-yard box.

Two minutes later, St. Benedict’s would level the score when Pierre’s right-footed free from on the top right-hand corner of the 18-yard box took a wicked deflection off a defender in the St. Anthony’s four-man wall and sneaked in at the first post past a flat-footed Josiah Morris in the St. Anthony’s goal.

Seven minutes into an evenly matched second half, Garcia took advantage of some slack marking by the St. Anthony’s defenders to a free-kick and collected a short pass before he drilled a right-footed shot into the far corner to put the visitors ahead.

Both teams then created a few half-chances to add to their tally, but with 12 minutes in the match, Devenish came to the rescue for his team with a stunning point-blank save off a close range blast from Thomas.

St Anthony’s was then handed a lifeline when St. Benedict’s defender Sahrai Mitchell was shown a second yellow card by referee Hood to leave his team to contest the remaining minutes with ten, which they did successfully in the end to preserve their unbeaten start to the campaign.

Also yesterday, Elijah Baptiste scored in the 77th minute to secure a 2-1 win for St. Augustine Secondary away to Speyside Secondary.

Abraham Kirk had given St. Augustine Secondary the lead in the 11th minute before Shyon George equalised for the host in the 61st, only for Baptiste to grab the winner for the visitors, now eighth on the table with ten points from eight matches.

Monday’s Results

St Augustine Sec 2 (Abraham Kirk 11th, Elijah Baptiste 77th) vs Speyside Sec 1 (Shyon George 61st)

St Benedict’s College 2 (Adam Pierre 43rd, Derrel Garcia 53rd) vs St Anthony’s 1 (Mordecai Ford 18th)

Latest SSFL Premier Division standings

Pos Teams P W D L F A Pts

1 St Benedict’s 8 7 1 0 14 5 22

2 Fatima 8 5 1 2 20 7 16

3 Presentation 7 5 1 1 15 3 16

4 Arima North 8 3 5 0 12 4 14

5 QRC 8 4 1 3 11 8 13

6 St Anthony’s 7 4 0 3 15 9 12

7 Naparima 6 3 2 1 13 5 11

8 St Augustine 7 3 1 3 7 12 10

9 St Mary’s 8 3 1 4 8 16 10

10 San Juan North 8 3 0 5 12 13 9

11 Malick 7 2 2 3 13 13 8

12 Signal Hill 7 2 2 3 14 16 8

13 East Mucurapo 7 2 0 5 5 9 6

14 Trinity East 8 2 0 6 12 16 6

15 Speyside 6 1 1 4 8 16 4

16 Miracle Ministries 7 1 0 6 2 26 3

Tomorrow’s matches:

Naparima College vs Speyside High, Lewis Street, San F’do, 3.30 pm.

Signal Hill Sec vs Fatima College, Signal Hill, 4 pm

Malick Sec vs San Juan North, Westmoorings, 4 pm

Arima North Sec v Miracle Ministries PHS, Arima Municipal Stadium, 4 pm

Presentation (San F’do) vs St Mary’s College, Mannie Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella, 4 pm

Queen’s Royal College vs St Benedict’s College, QRC Grd, St Clair, 4 pm

St Augustine Sec vs East Mucurapo Sec, Warren Street, St Augustine, 4 pm

Trinity College East v St Anthony’s College, Trincity, 4 pm

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