'Pres' coach hails stingy defence, revels in historic sporting year

PRESENTATION College San Fernando are revelling in sporting excellence after their victory in the Coca-Cola National Boys Intercol final on Thursday, at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo.

The Pres Lions defeated St Anthony's College 7-6 on penalties, after playing to a stalemate.

Pres coach Sean Cooper credited St Anthony’s for taking them down to the wire.

He told Newsday that his defensive back line held strong, despite playing under a lot of pressure from their opponents’ attackers.

“We thought we had the impetus going forward in the first 30 minutes," he said. "They came back in the last 15 minutes and threw everything at us. I think we had a problem marking in the midfield, where we were marking one versus one, but our plan was really to nullify the wingers.

“So their wingers got some joy, but then we were still able to deal with the balls coming across the box. We have the stingiest defence in the league. No one has scored on us in open play for the whole Intercol series, so kudos to the team.”

Cooper also said the result may also be a historic one for Pres since their cricket team won a treble this year, capturing the league, T20 Intercol and T10 titles. He was pleased to deliver the Intercol title for football, which sparked joint celebrations.

“This is history where we are the only school to win the national (T20) intercol cricket and and football in the same year. And this is our 75th (anniversary) year and I’m pretty much pleased that we can hand over the trophy to the principal,” he said.

Before making two crucial saves in the penalty shootout, Presentation College goalie and eventual man of the match Kanye Lazarus reassured Cooper that the title would be in the southland.

Cooper said he allowed his players to do research on St Anthony’s kickers, and share it with Lazarus, who executed impressively.

“We have been doing a lot of penalty shootouts in training after the sessions. Then I asked the players to go home and do their homework, in terms of all the teams who have been kicking penalties in their zones, and look at the players and the corners they prefer.

“At the start of the penalty kicks he (Lazarus) came to me and said, ‘Coach, I have it, I have at least four men (to save).’"

Cooper said Lazarus' confidence lifted the team as they felt comfortable scoring their attempts.

Pres Lions last won the Intercol in 2019, but was unsuccessful in their defence in 2022, as Fatima lifted the trophy. There was no football in 2020 and 2021 owing to the pandemic.

Cooper said throughout the season, he was forced to rotate players in different positions to fill gaps where they fell short. His strategy paid off when it mattered most.

“During the course of the season, we were lacking certain players in certain positions. So we were actually substituting players in the number nine and ten positions, for the whole year.

“We had defensive midfielders playing at number ten and wingers playing at the number nine position. But we rallied through as a troop and we came out on top tonight. So I’m very pleased with the boys.”