Boost­ed by their 4-3 win over Fa­ti­ma Col­lege in the 2023 Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League 16-team Pre­mier Di­vi­sion NGC Su­per Cup clash be­tween the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion ‘Big-Four’ cham­pi­ons and the Na­tion­al In­ter-Col win­ners, St Bene­dict’s Col­lege will aim to kick start their ti­tle de­fence with a win away to an­oth­er key ri­val, San Juan North Sec­ondary from 3.30 pm on Wednesday.

In Sat­ur­day’s win over Fa­ti­ma, Der­rel Gar­cia scored a hat-trick for St Bene­dict’s who lift­ed their first Na­tion­al League crown last year since 1967 via a 3-1 win over Fa­ti­ma led by a tre­ble from for­mer team cap­tain Tarik Lee.

Last year in the league com­pe­ti­tion, which was con­test­ed via two groups, the Ran­dolph Boyce-coached St Bene­dict’s Col­lege topped the eight-team Group A stand­ings ahead of Fa­ti­ma on goal dif­fer­ence af­ter both teams fin­ished with 19 points be­fore they de­feat­ed Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege of San Fer­nan­do 5-3 in their ‘Big-Four’ semi­fi­nal. San Juan North Sec­ondary, mean­while, led by for­mer strik­er Lar­ry Noel emerged as Group B win­ners with six wins from sev­en match­es for 19 points as well, be­fore they nar­row­ly lost out to Fa­ti­ma Col­lege 1-0, the Group A run­ner-up in the semi­fi­nals, and will be keen to star the cam­paign on a pos­i­tive note as well.

The Hut­son “Bar­ber” Charles-coached Fa­ti­ma Col­lege who end­ed their 17-year-old Na­tion­al In­ter-Col drought last year with a 1-0 win over St Bene­dict’s in the fi­nal and al­so won the North Zone In­ter-Col will al­so face a stern test to kick off the sea­son as they wel­come zon­al ri­vals St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege for what is ex­pect­ed to be an equal­ly as en­ter­tain­ing en­counter at Fa­ti­ma Col­lege Ground, Mu­cu­rapo Road.

In oth­er eye-catch­ing match­es, peren­ni­al cham­pi­ons and four-time win­ners Na­pari­ma Col­lege be­gins their quest to re­claim their ti­tle at home to Ch­agua­nas North Sec­ondary at Lewis Street, San Fer­nan­do while East In­ter-Col cham­pi­ons Trin­i­ty East Col­lege en­ter­tains pro­mot­ed for­mer na­tion­al cham­pi­ons East Mu­cu­rapo Sec­ondary at Trin­i­ty, and an­oth­er for­mer na­tion­al cham­pi­on Ari­ma North Sec­ondary ‘Di­al Dy­namos’ wel­come Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege of San Fer­nan­do to the Ari­ma Mu­nic­i­pal Sta­di­um while Mal­ick Sec­ondary and Queen’s Roy­al Col­lege square off in a bat­tle of for­mer pow­er­hous­es at St Mary’s Col­lege (CIC) Ground, Ser­pen­tine Road.

Else­where, Pleas­antville Sec­ondary hosts St Mary’s Col­lege at Yolande Pom­pey Recre­ation­al Ground, Na­pari­ma Ma­yaro Road, and Spey­side High and Bish­op’s High meet in an all-To­ba­go match-up at Spey­side Recre­ation Ground.

Wednes­day (Sep­tem­ber 13) match­es:

Fa­ti­ma Col­lege vs St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege, Fa­ti­ma Ground, 3.30pm

Mal­ick Sec­ondary vs QRC, CI Ground, Ser­pen­tine Road, 3.30pm;

Ari­ma North vs Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege (San F’do), Ari­ma Mu­nic­i­pal Sta­di­um, 3.30pm;

Na­pari­ma Col­lege vs Ch­agua­nas North, Lewis Street, 3.30pm;

Pleas­antville vs St Mary’s Col­lege, Yolande Pom­pey Rec. Ground, Na­pari­ma Ma­yaro Road 3.30pm;

San Juan North vs St Bene­dict’s Col­lege, Bourg Mu­la­tresse, 3.30pm;

Spey­side High vs Bish­op’s High, Spey­side Rec. Ground, 3.30pm;

Trin­i­ty Col­lege East vs East Mu­cu­rapo Sec­ondary, Trinci­ty, 3.30pm.