Strik­er Ka­reem ‘Scoo­by’ Fre­itas marked his last match for T&T Po­lice FC with a pair of goals and an as­sist to lead his team to a con­vinc­ing 3-0 win over Queen’s Park Crick­et Club (QPCC) to se­cure the $100,000 ti­tle in the T&T Pre­mier Foot­ball League Tier II Di­vi­sion on Fri­day night.

Go­ing in­to the match watched by 400-plus spec­ta­tors at the Ken Cooke Ground, St James Po­lice Train­ing Bar­racks, Long Cir­cu­lar Road, St James, the Garfield ‘Dol­lars’ Am­brose-coached law­men need­ed on­ly a drawn re­sult to be sure of se­cur­ing the ti­tle, while the Parkites, coached by Wayne Shep­pard, need­ed full points to sur­pass their neigh­bours.

How­ev­er, with­in six min­utes of the kick-off, Fre­itas strength­ened the law­men’s hold on the league ti­tle when he caught goal­keep­er Dil­lon King off his line with a 35-yard right-foot­ed loop­ing ef­fort off a feed from cap­tain Clevon McFee.

Po­lice con­tin­ued to en­joy the bet­ter of the ex­changes in the first half but failed to add to their tal­ly, while at the oth­er end of the field, any at­tempt by the Parkites to breach the Law­men’s de­fence was turned away by cen­tral de­fend­er Xavier Wheel­er and his team­mates as the score re­mained 1-0 at the half-time in­ter­val.

On the re­sump­tion, QPCC cre­at­ed a few ner­vous mo­ments with goal­keep­er Kanye Lazarus mak­ing a few time­ly saves while Po­lice al­so wast­ed a few chances to ex­tend their lead be­fore Akeil Thomas dou­bled the ad­van­tage from close from a left-sided cross by Fre­itas.

With sev­en min­utes left in the match, Fri­etas got his sec­ond of the match and the team’s third to seal the win when he was on spot to head home from close range a left-sided cen­tre from sub­sti­tute Isa­iah Mor­ris, and with it the top spot on the ten-team ta­ble with 44 points, six clear of QPCC.

How­ev­er, de­spite the loss, QPCC will take con­so­la­tion in that by end­ing as league run­ner-up they will be pro­mot­ed to Tier I, as Po­lice al­ready has a team com­pet­ing in the top flight of the lo­cal pro­fes­sion­al league.

Speak­ing af­ter the win, po­lice coach Garfield Am­brose said his team’s aim at the start of the sea­son was to win the league.

He said, “We knew we had a team al­ready com­pet­ing in Tier I, and even if we won the ti­tle in Tier II, we could not be pro­mot­ed, but the guys had one goal for the cam­paign, and that was al­ways to win and al­ways aim for the sky.”

Am­brose, com­ment­ing on the team’s suc­cess, said it was all down to both the tech­ni­cal staff and play­ers all be­ing on the same page.

Am­brose added, “It was al­so key that the play­ers bought in­to the phi­los­o­phy of how we want­ed to play, along with show­ing the right dis­ci­pline in train­ing and match­es.”

Am­brose was al­so full of praise for the se­nior play­ers, who he said blend­ed nice­ly with the younger core of play­ers whom he boast­ed are ready for the high­er lev­el.

He said, “We had a lot of youths this sea­son, and the se­nior play­ers who came down from the Tier I team did a great job in guid­ing the young­sters, and I be­lieve many of the younger play­ers are now ready to make the step up.”

Man-of-the-match Fre­itas said it was re­al­ly nice to end his tenure with the po­lice team on a win­ning note.

“Com­ing in­to the match, I knew this would be my last match as a po­lice play­er, and I want­ed to do some­thing spe­cial for the team to help them win, and in the end, I was able to score two goals and grab an as­sist.

Hav­ing played with the Tier I team in the past, Fre­itas said he was able to use his ex­pe­ri­ence play­ing at the high­er lev­el dur­ing the cam­paign.

He said, “With Tier 1 it is a much high­er stan­dard of com­pe­ti­tion, and com­ing down to tran­si­tion in­to Tier 2 was just to bring my ex­pe­ri­ence.” My ex­pe­ri­ence and my goal-scor­ing abil­i­ty. It was al­so to help the younger play­ers in the team. It is al­so an added in­cen­tive as well to go out on a high, be­cause no­body knew be­fore, but this was my last game for Po­lice play­ing com­pet­i­tive foot­ball.”

He said, “So, my mis­sion this year was just to help the youths, and next sea­son some­body else could come and pick up the man­tle to car­ry the po­lice for­ward.”

Fri­day’s re­sults

T&T Po­lice Ser­vice 3 (Ka­reem Fre­itas 6th, 70th, Akeil Thomas 60th) vs QPCC 0

Lat­est T&TPFL Tier II stand­ings

Di­vi­sion One

Pos Teams P W D L F A Pts

1. T&T Po­lice FC 18 14 2 2 48 18 44

2. QPCC FC 18 12 2 4 33 16 38

3. Carn­bee/Mt Pleas­ant 16 8 6 2 33 15 30

4. Mal­abar Young Stars 17 8 3 6 25 23 27

5. Matu­ra Re­Unit­ed 17 6 5 6 20 27 23

6. De­fence Force 17 6 3 8 23 29 21

7. Harlem Strik­ers 17 4 5 8 23 27 17

8. Pa­lo Seco Union Hall 16 4 5 7 10 21 17

9. UTT 17 4 2 11 20 31 14

10. Cen­tral Soc­cer World 17 1 3 13 16 44 6

Di­vi­sion Two

Pos Teams P W D L F A Pts

1. Sidey’s SC 15 10 2 3 24 13 32

2. Club San­do/Pro Se­ries 14 10 1 3 40 13 31

3. Prison Ser­vice 15 9 3 3 40 15 30

4. PV/DM Utd 15 9 2 4 25 20 29

5. City FC 15 9 0 6 34 22 27

6. Ea­gles FC 15 6 2 7 22 26 20

7. Bethel SC 14 4 2 8 23 30 14

8. RSSR FC 15 4 2 9 20 30 14

9. San F’do Gi­ants 15 3 2 10 20 32 11

10. Misc Laven­tille 15 2 0 13 11 58 6

Sun­day’s match­es

Di­vi­sion Two

Mis­cel­la­neous Laven­tille Utd vbs Sidey’s SC, Park Street, Mor­vant, 4 pm

Pe­tit Val­ley/Diego Mar­tin Utd vs Club San­do/Pro Se­ries, St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege Grd, 4 pm

San F’do Gi­ants vs Bethel SC, Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um Train­ing Field, Mara­bel­la, 4 pm

City FC vs RSSR FC, De­fence Force Re­serve Grd, Mac­queripe, 4 pm

Prison Ser­vice vs Ea­gles FC, YTC Ground, Arou­ca, 5.30 pm