Coach An­gus Eve and five-time win­ners and reign­ing cham­pi­ons Na­pari­ma Col­lege will go in­to Fri­day’s (No­vem­ber 13) fi­nal round of match­es in the 17-team Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League (SS­FL) Pre­mier­ship Di­vi­sion well poised to re­tain their crown.

​This af­ter ti­tle ri­vals St Mary’s Col­lege, who led the ta­ble for al­most the en­tire cam­paign, and Sig­nal Hill Sec­ondary, the two oth­er teams still in the ti­tle race, could on­ly muster a 0-0 draw in their resched­uled en­counter in front of a crowd of some 2,000 spec­ta­tors at St Mary’s Col­lege Ground, Ser­pen­tine Road, in St Clair on Tues­day (No­vem­ber 10).

​With the share of the points, St Mary’s joined Na­pari­ma on 37 points from 15 match­es, with the for­mer hav­ing a su­pe­ri­or goal dif­fer­ence of plus-36 to the ‘Saints’ plus-28, while Sig­nal Hill is third on 35 points.

The match was orig­i­nal­ly card­ed for last Fri­day, but was post­poned due to a wa­ter­logged field.

In yes­ter­day’s cru­cial fix­ture, clear-cut chances were hard to come by for both teams, with sub­sti­tute Deron Black­man hav­ing the ‘Saints’ best ef­fort, which can­noned off the left post from an acute an­gle in the 57th minute. At the oth­er end of the pitch, the live­ly Jmeke Watkins forced goal­keep­er Don­nell Thomas in­to a low save to his left on his near post in the 80th minute to de­ny the vis­i­tors from go­ing ahead.

​In the end, it was a de­serv­ing share of the points for both teams, set­ting the stage for a dra­mat­ic fi­nal day round of match­es.

​For Na­pari­ma, the task will be a tricky one, though, as they will be at home to a resur­gent St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege, who con­tin­ued their come­back from a dis­as­trous start to the cam­paign in which they lost their first three match­es, with a 2-1 home win over Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege of San Fer­nan­do.

​The win for the “West­moor­ings Tigers” came via a pair of goals from Karim Milling­ton in the 28th and 63rd minute af­ter Djoshua Cyrus, a mem­ber of the na­tion­al Un­der-15 team at the re­cent FI­FA U-15 Fes­ti­val, had giv­en the south­ern­ers a sev­enth-minute lead.

​St Mary’s will be at home to San Juan North at Ser­pen­tine Road and needs all three points while hop­ing for Na­pari­ma to fal­ter at home to the West­moor­ings Tigers. Sig­nal Hill will al­so be hop­ing for their two ti­tle ri­vals to slip up as they come away with all three points at al­ready rel­e­gat­ed Trin­i­ty East in Trinci­ty.

​There is al­so a pos­si­bil­i­ty that all three teams could end up with the same tal­ly of 38 points if Na­pari­ma and St Mary’s are held to draws, and Sig­nal Hill wins their match. How­ev­er, the ti­tle will still go to Na­pari­ma due to their far su­pe­ri­or goal dif­fer­ence over their ri­vals.

​At the oth­er end of the ta­ble, Trin­i­ty East and Mu­cu­rapo West have been rel­e­gat­ed, leav­ing two from the trio of San Juan North and St Au­gus­tine, both with 11 points, and Trin­i­ty Mo­ka to join them in mak­ing their ex­it from top-flight com­pe­ti­tion and re­turn­ing to their zon­al cham­pi­onship com­pe­ti­tions for the 2027 sea­son.

In Fri­day’s match­es, Trin­i­ty Mo­ka will be away to Mu­cu­rapo West while St Au­gus­tine hosts Fa­ti­ma Col­lege, with San Juan trav­el­ling to the Saints.

Tues­day’s re­sults

St Mary’s Col­lege 0 vs Sig­nal Hill Sec 0

Spey­side 3 (Justin Bernard 4th, Je­re­mi­ah Wick­ham 50th, Tevez Smith 90+3) vs Mal­ick 2 (Is­rael Out­ar 5th, 7th)

St An­tho­ny’s 2 (Karim Milling­ton 28th, 63rd) vs Pre­sen­ta­tion 1 (Djoshua Cyrus 7th)

Cur­rent stand­ings

Pos Teams P W D L GF GA GD Pts

1. Na­pari­ma*15*12*1*2*46*10*36*37

2. St Mary’s*15*11*4*0*37*9*28*37

3. Sig­nal Hill*15*11*2*2*33*13*20*35

4. St Bene­dict’s*16*9*4*3*41*12*29*31

5. Fa­ti­ma*15*8*5*2*45*20*25*29

6. Hillview*15*9*2*4*43*24*19*29

7. Pre­sen­ta­tion*15*7*5*3*28*17*11*26

8. St An­tho­ny’s*15*7*3*5*27*25*2*24

9. Spey­side*16*7*2*7*26*39*-13*23

10. Ari­ma North*15*6*1*8*31*36*-5*19

11. Mal­ick*16*5*1*10*36*38*-2*16

12. QRC*15*3*3*9*14*24*-10*12

13. San Juan North*15*3*2*10*17*36*-19*11

14. St Au­gus­tine*15*3*2*10*23*48*-25*11

15. Trin­i­ty Mo­ka*15*2*4*9*26*53*-27*10

16. Mu­cu­rapo West*15*2*2*11*15*50*-35*8

17. Trin­i­ty East*15*1*3*11*18*52*-34*6

Fri­day’s match­es

• ↓Ari­ma North vs QRC, Ari­ma Mu­nic­i­pal Sta­di­um, Ari­ma

• ↓Mu­cu­rapo West vs Trin­i­ty Mo­ka, Mu­cu­rapo West Sec Grd, Mu­cu­rapo Road

• ↓Na­pari­ma vs St An­tho­ny’s, Lewis Street, San Fer­nan­do

• ↓Pre­sen­ta­tion vs Hillview, Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Mara­bel­la

• ↓St Au­gus­tine vs Fa­ti­ma, St Au­gus­tine Sec. Grd, War­ren Street

• ↓St Mary’s vs San Juan North, St Mary’s Col­lege Grd, Ser­pen­tine Road

• ↓Trin­i­ty East vs Sig­nal Hill, Trin­i­ty Col­lege East Grd, Trinci­ty

Lead­ing scor­ers

24 - Ja­haem Bai­ley (Fa­ti­ma)

16 - Adasa Richard­son (Na­pari­ma)

14 - Cris­tiano Hinds (Hillview), Keisean Spence (Mal­ick)

13 - Jmeke Watkins (Sig­nal Hill)

11 - Kanye Glas­gow (St Bene­dict’s)

10 - Jae­don Thomas (St Mary’s)

8 - Is­rael Hold­er (St Au­gus­tine), Is­rael Out­ar (Mal­ick)

7 - Jay­lon Forbes (St Bene­dict’s), Justin Bernard (Spey­side), Karim Milling­ton (St An­tho­ny’s)

6 - Dim­itrie Jones (Ari­ma North), Aidan Sinanan-Mc Don­ald (Pre­sen­ta­tion), Mar­lon Jor­dan (Mu­cu­rapo West), Je­di­ael Mar­celle (Sig­nal Hill), Orande Par­ris (St Bene­dict’s),

5 - Je­di­ah David, Jae­den Samuel (Ari­ma North), Jay­lon Roberts (St Mary’s), Mar­ley Ram­dass (St An­tho­ny’s), Je­re­mai Nan­ton, Jonathan Ma­son (Fa­ti­ma), Ackim Dun­can (Sig­nal Hill), Jaylen Hinds, Ta­fari Kerr (Hillview), Os­hea Wat­son (Pre­sen­ta­tion), Samuel Bal­four (St Bene­dict’s), Kevez Quin­tero (Trin­i­ty Col­lege Mo­ka), Jak­won How­ell (Trin­i­ty East), Je­re­mi­ah Wick­ham (Spey­side)