It rained goals in the South Zone of the Co­ca-Co­la In­ter­col Play-Offs Mon­day, with 38 goals be­ing record­ed in just three match­es.

Not sur­pris­ing­ly, though, the en­coun­ters fea­tured teams in the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion up against those in the low­er Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion, though the dis­par­i­ty has left much to be con­cerned about in the de­vel­op­ment of lo­cal foot­ball.

Reign­ing cham­pi­on St Bene­dict’s Col­lege had a pos­i­tive start to the de­fence of their ti­tle, as they took the field at the Ma­haica Sport­ing Com­plex in Point Fortin with fury, ham­mer­ing sev­en goals in a com­fort­able 7-0 vic­to­ry over Siparia West Sec­ondary.

​Across at Lewis Street in San Fer­nan­do, lit­tle-known Rio Claro West Sec­ondary was at the end of a de­mor­al­is­ing 15-0 de­mo­li­tion by Na­pari­ma Col­lege, with Ryan Rasel­lant spear­head­ing the pro­ceed­ings with five goals, in­clu­sive of the open­ing item in the fourth minute.

​The tal­ent­ed play­er added oth­er goals in the 32nd, 46th, 50th, and 66th min­utes, as Na­pari­ma con­tin­ued their win­ning streak, which re­cent­ly pro­pelled them back to the top of the 16-team stand­ings in the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion of the Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League (SS­FL) on 34 points.

​Apart from Rasel­lant, the Na­pari­ma Col­lege rout saw dou­ble strikes from Dar­ius Pro­cope in the 36th and 90th, and Xar­i­on France in the 44th and 86th. The oth­er scor­ers were Eli­jah Ed­wards (9th), Jay­den Ca­pri­et­ta (17th), Sha­bani Thomp­son (43rd), Mikhael Bul­lock (70th), and Riquelme Phillips (77th) against a hap­less Rio Claro West out­fit, as the mul­ti­ple-times South Zone In­ter­Col win­ners cruised in­to the zon­al semi­fi­nals.

​Na­pari­ma will next face Pleas­antville Sec­ondary in the round of four, while Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, San Fer­nan­do, will come up against St Bene­dict’s Col­lege in a mouth-wa­ter­ing con­test.

​Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, the boys from Cof­fee Street, San Fer­nan­do, de­stroyed Point Fortin East Sec­ondary 16-0 at the Man­ny Ramjohn Sta­di­um in Mara­bel­la. Isa­iah Ja­cob scored four goals in the In­ter­col play-off and con­tin­ues to stroll to­wards the Gold­en Boot award with 26 goals in to­tal this sea­son.

​Ja­cob’s four goals were added to six from Roshaun Doobay, three from Nikosi Fon­cette, two from Josi­ah Bain and one from Josi­ah Stew­art. The Point Fortin East unit had no re­ply in the en­counter. The Point Fortin East team had no re­ply in the en­counter.

De­spite the ab­sence of their reg­u­lar coach, Shawn Coop­er, sus­pend­ed in­def­i­nite­ly for a breach of the Safe­guard­ing code at the be­gin­ning of the year, the Cof­fee Street Boys may feel con­fi­dent be­ing the first team to stop the Na­pari­ma Col­lege win­ning streak, and al­so edged St Bene­dict’s 1-0 when the teams met in the League.

​North Zone Re­sults

​Mean­while, in the North Zone, last year’s beat­en fi­nal­ist in the Co­ca-Co­la Na­tion­al In­ter­Col play-off, Fa­ti­ma Col­lege, thrashed East Mu­cu­rapo Sec­ondary 3-0 at St Mary’s Col­lege Ground to move on to the zon­al semi­fi­nals, where they will face St Mary’s Col­lege on Fri­day at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo, Port-of-Spain.

In a match con­sid­ered the Mu­cu­rapo Road der­by, Fa­ti­ma pre­vailed with goals from Josi­ah Fer­nan­des, Jonathan Ma­son, and Ray­mond Deyal.

​St Mary’s Col­lege (CIC) were al­so 3-0 win­ners over Queen’s Roy­al Col­lege (QRC) at Fa­ti­ma Ground. Goals for CIC came from Finn De Fre­itas, Nadeem Grant, and Jay­lon Roberts.

Mon­day’s re­sults

SOUTH ZONE

Na­pari­ma Col­lege 15 (Ryan Rasel­lant 4th, 32nd, 46th, 50th, 66th, Eli­jah Ed­wards 9th, Jay­den Ca­pri­et­ta 17th, Dar­ius Pro­cope 36th, 90th, Sha­bani Thomp­son 43rd, Xar­i­on France 44th, 86th, Seth Eve 68th, Mikhael Bul­lock 7th, Riquelme Phillips 77th) vs Rio Claro West 0

St Bene­dict’s 7 vs Siparia West Sec­ondary 0

Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege 16 (Roshaun Doobay 6, Isa­iah Ja­cob 4, Nikosi Fon­cette 3, Josi­ah Bain 2, Josi­ah Stew­art) vs Point Fortin East 0

NORTH ZONE

Fa­ti­ma Col­lege 3 (Josi­ah Fer­nan­des, Jonathan Ma­son, Ray­mond Deyal) vs East Mu­cu­rapo 0

CIC 3 (Finn De Fre­itas, Nadeem Grant, Jay­lon Roberts) vs QRC 0

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