Scarborough Sec, Five Rivers set for Girls Big 5 finals clash

Scarborough Secondary and Five Rivers Secondary will meet in the final of the Girls Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) Big 5 competition, after getting semi-final wins over Pleasantville Secondary and Miracle Ministries Pentecostal High School respectively on Wednesday.

Scarborough, the defending Big 5 champions, were powered by a pair of Women Soca Warriors players – J'Eleisha Alexander and Talia Martin – as they blanked the high-scoring South zone champions Pleasantville by a 2-0 margin in Black Rock, Tobago. Pleasantville scored over 100 goals as they romped to the South title, but they couldn't replicate their scoring form against Scarborough who scored twice in the second half to kill off the Big 5 semi.

Alexander, who was voted the girls SSFL MVP in 2022, put her Trinidad and Tobago youth team experience on display with Scarborough's opening goal, as she dusted off herself to dispatch a 56th minute penalty after being fouled in the area.

Martin, who turned out for the TT women's team in Gold Cup qualifying last month against Puerto Rico, showed her class at the school's level by finding the net in the 78th minute for the hosts. Pouncing on an error from a Pleasantville player down the Scarborough left, Martin raced towards the goal to calmly slot past the keeper at the end of a lovely solo run.

At the Manny Ramjohn Stadium in Marabella, East zone champions Five Rivers got a brace from Lu Ann Craig as they overturned an early first-half deficit to beat Central champions Miracle Ministries by a 2-1 margin. Craig was named as one of five players of the year in the 2022 SSFL campaign.

On November 15, Craig and Five Rivers will have to quell the threat of the lively attacking pair of Alexander and Martin if they are to dethrone the 2022 Big 5 champions. The venue for the final is still to be decided.