It was ti­tle num­ber 17 for Na­pari­ma Col­lege on Mon­day evening when they de­feat­ed archri­vals Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege of San Fer­nan­do 4-0 in the South Zone of the In­ter­Col at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um in Bal­main, Cou­va.

Coach An­gus Eve has been carv­ing out a niche for him­self in all ver­sions of the Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League (SS­FL) and will go af­ter an­oth­er ti­tle, the Co­ca-Co­la Na­tion­al In­ter­Col crown, in the com­ing days.

His Na­pari­ma troops, against a team that de­feat­ed them in the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion League, were sur­pris­ing­ly in cruise con­trol, though the goals came lat­er than ex­pect­ed.

Riquelme Phillips was the star on the day, guid­ing his team with a hat-trick in the 63rd, 78th, and 85th min­utes, but their vic­to­ry was not com­plet­ed un­til the fi­nal minute of play when Xar­i­on France com­plet­ed the scor­ing in the 90+3 minute. Com­ing af­ter their re­cent tri­umph over Sig­nal Hill Sec­ondary for the pre­mier di­vi­sion crown, which earned them their eighth ti­tle, fol­low­ing wins in 1999, 2005, 2008, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019 and this year, the rag­ing south­ern champs al­so took their south In­ter­Col tal­ly to 17.

These fol­lowed their suc­cess­es in 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1984, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2015, 2018 and this year.

Known as one of the gi­ants in school foot­ball, Na­pari­ma Col­lege has al­so shown its dom­i­nance in the South Zone League- 1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010, as well as at the Na­tion­al In­ter­Col where they scooped up the top awards in 1973, 1976, 1977, 1999, 2000, 2007, 2015 and 2018.

Team man­ag­er Per­cy Sam­lals­ingh said he was any­thing but sur­prised by the 4-0 vic­to­ry over their neme­sis. “Based on the op­por­tu­ni­ty, be­cause it was the first game against them, I knew we were ca­pa­ble of scor­ing goals. It was a tough game in the In­ter­Col, but I wasn’t that sur­prised. I think we were even 3-1 in the first half. I don’t think it was an op­por­tu­ni­ty. In fact, I think we played from our own goal­keep­er. We were look­ing good, and then, I think An­gus did his job at half­time, and the boys came out and played in the sec­ond half.”

Mean­while, the ac­tion con­tin­ues to­day with the North Zone In­ter­Col fi­nal sched­uled to take place at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo. St Joseph’s Con­vent will take on Holy Name Con­vent from 3pm in the Girls In­ter­Col fi­nal with boys’ fi­nal to take place two hours lat­er be­tween Fa­ti­ma Col­lege, last year Pre­mier Di­vi­sion win­ners and St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege at 5pm.