Title-chasing St Benedict's go six points clear in SSFL top flight

WITH seven games left in their 2024 Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) premier division campaign, St Benedict’s College (22 points) strengthened their title aspirations on October 7 when they opened up a six-point lead at the league’s summit with a comeback 2-1 victory over St Anthony’s College (12 points) in a rescheduled game at the latter’s compound in Westmoorings.

Winners of the premier division title in 2022, and runners-up to the second-placed Fatima College (16 points) last season, Benedict’s have their eyes on a second league title in three years. Against the sixth-placed “Tigers,” the “The La Romaine Lions” roared the loudest and their winning goal was fitting for the occasion as their striker and captain Derrel “Zum Zum” Garcia scored in the 52nd minute with a wicked right-footed shot from about 25 yards out.

After St Anthony’s took the lead in the 18th minute through Mordecai Ford, Benedict’s equalised in the 43rd minute when their impressive central midfielder Adam Pierre beat custodian Josiah Morris with a deflected free-kick effort.

Perhaps expecting Pierre to go for goal again as he stood over another set piece, the St Anthony’s defence was caught off guard as the ball was slipped to Garcia who arrowed a bullet past Morris’ despairing dive. It was a goal that mirrored Garcia’s first item from his team’s 3-1 win versus Fatima on October 5, and the national under-20 player’s telling goal versus the Tigers could prove to be a decisive one in the title run-in.

“Saturday was a big win against Fatima. This is an even bigger win against St Anthony’s because we had one day’s rest for this game and the fellas had to dig even deeper,” Benedict’s coach Randolph Boyce told Newsday.

“The boys showed a lot of courage, a lot of determination and they knew what going six points (ahead) on the standings would do for us.”

Two years ago, Benedict’s clinched their first national league title since 1967 when they defeated Fatima by a 3-1 margin in the premier division final. And after being edged to the line by Fatima last season, Boyce reckons it’s time for the southern powerhouse to return to the top.

“I would say it’s like a redemption year, because the character of the team is a never-say-die character,” he said. “The ambition of the unit is to win titles, to bring the institution back where it used to be...we keep embedding it in them.”

In an end-to-end game that had more than enough to appease the neutrals, Garcia was an absolute terror down the left, with Pierre having a monster performance in the midfield with his timely interceptions and his ability to spring the counter-attack.

After going 2-1 up, Benedict’s had ample chances to put daylight between themselves and St Anthony’s in the second half, but their finishing left a lot to be desired.

In the 70th minute, Pierre drilled a long-range shot just wide, with right back Lyshaun Morris seeing a lobbed effort tipped wide by his namesake Josiah just three minutes later.

Though they looked the likelier team to add to their tally, Benedict’s had their goalie Thane Devenish to thank for preserving all three points, as he spectacularly tipped a ferocious, point-blank effort from Jean-Marc Thomas onto the bar to keep the score at 2-1 in the 78th minute.

In the dying stages, Lyshaun and Garcia again came close for Benedict’s, who also had central defender Sahrai Mitchell sent off in stoppage time for a second bookable offence.

Mitchell’s sending-off was a minor blip in St Benedict’s day at the office, though, as Boyce’s team now have a decent cushion atop the 16-team table.

“We still have seven more games to play. And the way the league is going in my view, anybody could beat anybody on the day.

“We need to have consistency, we need to have discipline, we need to have the right attitude...we also have to know we cannot lose focus because we haven’t reached there yet.”

In the other rescheduled game on October 7, the newly promoted St Augustine Secondary (ten points) moved from 12th to eighth when they got a 2-1 win over the 15th-placed Speyside Secondary in Tobago.

Abraham Kirk and Elijah Baptiste scored the goals for the “Green Machine” who notched back-to-back wins after getting a 1-0 victory over Trinity College East on October 5.

SSFL premier division standings

Team*GP*W*D*L*GF*GA*GD*Pts

St Benedict's*8*7*1*0*14*5*9*22

Fatima*8*5*1*2*20*7*13*16

Presentation (San Fernando)*7*5*1*1*15*3*12*16

Arima North*8*3*5*0*12*4*8*14

QRC*8*4*1*3*11*8*3*13

St Anthony's College*7*4*0*3*15*9*6*12

Naparima*6*3*2*1*13*5*8*11

St Augustine*7*3*1*3*7*12*-5*10

St Mary's College*8*3*1*4*8*16*-8*10

San Juan North*8*3*0*5*11*12*-1*9

Malick*7*2*2*3*13*13*0*8

Signal Hill*7*2*2*3*14*16*-2*8

Trinity East*8*2*0*6*12*16*-4*6

East Mucurapo*7*2*0*5*4*9*-5*6

Speyside*6*1*1*4*8*16*-8*4

Miracle Ministries PHS*8*1*0*7*3*29*-26*3