​Sig­nal Hill Sec­ondary moved with­in two match­es of the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion ti­tle in the Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League (SS­FL) with a com­fort­able 5-2 tri­umph over Mal­ick Sec­ondary, on Mon­day, mov­ing them to 31 points.

​Should they be grant­ed a favourable rul­ing by the three-man Dis­ci­pli­nary Com­mit­tee in a protest against St Au­gus­tine Sec­ondary, they could find them­selves just a win away from the ti­tle when they face Na­pari­ma Col­lege on Thurs­day at Lewis Street in San Fer­nan­do. The protest stems from a resched­uled match, orig­i­nal­ly card­ed for No­vem­ber 17 at the Bertille St Clair Ground in Sig­nal Hill, where St Au­gus­tine failed to make an ap­pear­ance, cit­ing a lack of funds.

​The To­bag­o­ni­ans protest­ed the match. The three-man dis­ci­pli­nary com­mit­tee, com­pris­ing Ger­ald El­liot, Essiel Seecha­ran, and Roger Mar­tin, was sched­uled to meet yes­ter­day to de­liv­er a judg­ment to the schools. Lau­rence Seep­er­sad, the Cen­tral Zone Sec­re­tary, said the League, as a mat­ter of ethics, wants to en­sure that the schools are giv­en such de­ci­sions first, rather than hear­ing it from the me­dia.

​At their home ground in the sis­ter isle, the To­bag­o­ni­ans were on cloud nine from the start. Kyle James fired them ahead in on­ly the sev­enth minute with one of three goals he scored on the day. Lat­er, Em­manuel Wright dou­bled the ad­van­tage in the 32nd minute, tak­ing the teams to the break with a 2-0 lead in Sig­nal Hill’s favour.

​With their field named af­ter a for­mer na­tion­al coach and teacher at the school, the Sig­nal Hill lads com­pound­ed Mal­ick's prob­lems with a third goal that came from the boot of Je­di­ael Mar­celle three min­utes af­ter the restart. How­ev­er, Mal­ick, fac­ing rel­e­ga­tion from the 16-team Pre­mier Di­vi­sion, opt­ed to fight back with two goals in the space of three min­utes.

​First, Jerome Pat­ter­son pulled a goal back in the 54th minute to re­duce the score to 3-1. And two min­utes lat­er, Arnest De Sil­va added an­oth­er in the 56th minute to re­duce the score­line to one goal, 3-2. But James took the game right out of Mal­ick’s reach in the re­main­ing min­utes. He first re­stored the two-goal ad­van­tage in the 68th minute, be­fore se­cur­ing the three points with an in­sur­ance goal in the 79th.

​The win moved Sig­nal Hill to 31 points, with hopes that they would in­crease their tal­ly to 34 from last night’s rul­ing, which man­ag­er Bron­son Roberts said is al­most cer­tain to go in their favour. Roberts told Guardian Me­dia Sports they're not try­ing to look too far ahead, but they would be con­fi­dent when they face Na­pari­ma on Thurs­day.

“We’re grate­ful to be in a po­si­tion to chal­lenge for the ti­tle. Against Na­pari­ma, it would be no easy task, but I think we have what it takes to win the game. Naps had a re­al­ly good run ear­ly in the sea­son, and they would be com­ing to take it home on Thurs­day. All we can do is pre­pare prop­er­ly,” Roberts said.

Naps, Pres in­to South In­ter­col fi­nal

​Mean­while, a new Co­ca-Co­la Na­tion­al In­ter­col cham­pi­on will be crowned this year af­ter St Bene­dict’s Col­lege went down 2-0 in a South Zone semi­fi­nal clash with Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um in Bal­main, Cou­va.

​St Bene­dict’s, the 2024 cham­pi­ons af­ter beat­ing Fa­ti­ma in the fi­nal last year, looked on as Isa­iah Ja­cob scored his 28th goal for the sea­son in the 50th minute to hand the “Cof­fee Street Boys” the 1-0 lead. The game turned tense as the “La Ro­main Li­ons” of St Bene­dict’s could not find a way back.

​In­stead, Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege de­liv­ered a dag­ger to their hearts, with Roshaun Doobay seal­ing the win late in the game. They will now take on Na­pari­ma Col­lege in the fi­nal, af­ter "Naps" ham­mered Pa­lo Seco Sec­ondary 6-0 in an ear­li­er match in Bal­main. Jabari Ro­driguez led the way with a hat-trick, with con­tri­bu­tions from Ar­ron Ray­mond, Jay­don Ca­pri­et­ta, and an own goal from the Pa­lo Seco lads.

Stand­ings

Pl*Team*P*W*D*L*GF*GA*GD*Pts.

1. Na­pari­ma*14*11*1*2*40*7*33*34

2. St Bene­dict’s*14*11*0*3*41*14*27*33

3. Sig­nal Hill*13*10*1*2*44*15*29*31

4. Pre­sen­ta­tion*14*10*1*3*37*9*28*31

5. Fa­ti­ma *14*9*2*3*46*24*22*29

6. St An­tho­ny’s*15*8*1*6*30*25*5*25

7. Ari­ma North*15*6*4*5*34*27*7*22

8. Trin­i­ty Mo­ka*14*7*2*5*29*32*-3*23

9. QRC*15*5*4*6*23*25*-2*19

10. St. Mary’s*15*5*3*7*31*23*8*18

11. Trin­i­ty East*14*4*1*9*21*50*-29*13

12. Mal­ick*14*3*3*8*29*40*-11*12

13. St Au­gus­tine*14*3*3*8*16*43*-27*12

14.San Juan North*14*2*5*7*22*26*-4*11

15. Scar­bor­ough*14*2*5*7*18*36*-18*11

16.Cara­pichaima East*15*0*0*15*7*72*-65*0