SSFL 24: Boyce beauty helps “Pres Lions” to 2-1 win over QRC

Isaiah Jacob and Caleb Boyce scored in either half as Presentation College (San Fernando) registered their second straight win in the 2024 Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) Premier Division, courtesy of a 2-1 result over hosts Queen’s Royal College (QRC) at St Clair today.

Jacob opened the scoring for the “Pres Lions” with a simple finish in the 27th minute after a defensive mix-up by the “Royalians”. And Boyce outwitted QRC defender Phillip Gray to double their lead in the 70th minute.

Micah Nelson pulled one back for the hosts, with an 87th minute freekick—but it was not enough to get QRC their first point of the season.

Instead, Presentation remained joint top of the points standings, along with St Anthony’s College, each having scored eight goals and conceded one in their two games thus far.

St Anthony’s edged East Mucurapo Secondary 2-1 at Mucurapo Road, with Jean-Marc Thomas scoring the winner, in the 89th minute.

Naparima College remained in third spot after defeating Trinity College East 3-2 at Trincity. Signal Hill Secondary, in fourth place, also registered their second win with a 3-2 victory over San Juan North Secondary.

(Arima North Secondary right back Criston Gomez scores a thunderbolt against St Augustine Secondary on 14 September 2024.)

Fatima College began their Premier Division title defence with an 8-0 trouncing of Miracle Ministries High School. Arima North Secondary whipped St Augustine Secondary 5-0; Malick Secondary defeated St Mary’s College 3-1 and St Benedict’s College defeated Speyside High School 3-1.

On Match Day One, Presentation hit newcomers Miracle Ministries 6-0. QRC offered more resistance, but Presentation had few alarms as they notched a second successive win in the early stages of the season.

Their front four of striker Caleb Boyce, Vaughn Clement (in a roving role as a support striker/attacking midfielder), wingers Jacob and Roshaun Doobay, were a handful for the QRC defence in the first half.

After five minutes of play, Presentation signalled their intent to put the Royalians’ defence under early pressure.

From a short corner involving Jacob and Doobay, Jacob swung a left-footed cross from the right which was met by Boyce, whose header was saved at close range by Shemuel Cassimy.

Boyce and Clement each had a chance to break the deadlock, but their indecisions allowed QRC to survive. Another piece of indecision, this time by Cassimy, handed Jacob the chance to open the scoring, and he duly obliged.

Cassimy, with time and space, hit an attempted clearance off the back of Boyce. The goalie then attempted to punch the rebound to safety but the ball fell to Jacob, who, from inside the penalty box, placed his right-footed half-volley over the remaining defenders and into the open net.

QRC, who operating a flat back-four, often failed, or were slow, to react to the movement of the Presentation attackers. In the 35th minute, Clement received a pass from Doobay but placed his right-footed chipped shot wide of Cassimy’s right post.

Jacob could have done better when given a glorious opportunity to double his personal tally—and that of his team’s—when he shot straight at Cassimy after receiving a diagonal ball from Clement.

And, on the stroke of half-time, the left-winger got behind the Royalians’ defence, but Cassimy was alert to thwart any danger.

At half-time, QRC coach and former Trinidad and Tobago captain Kenwyne Jones made two substitutions. Kerry Baptiste replaced centre-back Shea Dolly and Gervais Frederick came in for winger Jasai Theophilus.

And right after the restart, they thought they had pulled over for Phillip Nelson’s goal—off a Stephon James pass—to be disallowed for offside.

The hosts pushed numbers forward in search of an equaliser but that left them vulnerable to a counter-attack. Against the flow of play, Boyce doubled Pres Lions’ score by running on to a through ball from Clement, shrugging off the challenge of stopper Phillip Gray and clipping the ball over the advancing Cassimy.

Clement twice muffed chances to give Presentation a three-goal cushion, in the 73rd and 76th, before Nelson halved the deficit with an angled freekick that evaded the reach of Presentation goalie Marcelo Phillip.

“I think we should have won the match by a far wider margin,” said Presentation coach Shawn Cooper, in a post-game interview with Wired868. “At the end of the first half, I think we should have been four [or] five goals on top.

“In the second half, we came out a bit lethargic. They started pressing a bit. We continued to press them and win the ball high up the pitch, and continued to create opportunities.

“We got a soft goal in the end, knowing that Nelson is a very good dead-ball specialist, with freekicks in and around the penalty box. I warned my players about it but we fell to one of his regular freekicks.”

Jones told SportsMax that his squad failed to come to grips with the challenge posed by the 2023 SSFL National Intercol champions.

“It was disappointing, from start to finish, for us,” said Jones. “The team, as this present time, is like far off from how we’ve been playing and training in pre-season, but we have to get it right.

“We have to get back to the [drawing] board and start back doing the little things correctly.”

Cooper, the National Under-17 Team coach, waited until the 83rd minute on Saturday before making his first substitution.

“We make substitutions if we want to change the game,” Cooper explained. “I was getting what I wanted from my players so [there was] no need to change. Our players are trained to last 90 minutes.

“You don’t make substitutions for making-substitutions sake.”

Presentation will visit St Augustine Secondary on Wednesday.

“I know they have a couple of good players,” said Cooper. “We are taking nothing for granted and trying to bring our A game.”

QRC, on the other hand, will host Speyside on Wednesday.

“We have to work on our recovery when we’re defending [and] our decision-making when on the ball,” Jones said. “As a team, we’re not defending well and then that leads to individual mistakes. From there, hopefully we can consolidate and start playing [better].”

Teams

Presentation College (San Fernando) (4-4-2): 28.Marcelo Phillip (GK); 3.Micah Brathwaite, 5.Kadon Elliott, 23.Cody Cooper (captain), 12.Duhrell Young; 14.Roshaun Doobay (13.Josiah Simmons 88), 6.Levi Jones, 15.Nkosi Foncette, 11.Isaiah Jacob; 7.Vaughn Clement (21.Jimally Renne 90), 9.Caleb Boyce (18.Maliq Brathwaite 83).

Unused substitutes: 1.Renaldo Lee (GK), 2.Terrance Worrell, 16.Josiah Bain, 17.Joshua Bernard, 19.Quincy Thomas, 20.Gabriel Collins, 24.Jordan Bernard.

Coach: Shawn Cooper

Queen’s Royal College (4-5-1): 1.Shemuel Cassimy (GK); 16.Isaiah Isaac (17.Zain Griffith 77), 2.Shea Dolly (7.Kerry Baptiste 46), 15.Phillip Gray, 13.Kaylon Tuckett (6.Jadell Henry 77); 19.Stephon James (14.Jalano Straker 69), 11.Micah Nelson, 23.Aydon Caruth (captain), 25.Teshaun Franklyn, 26.Jasai Theophilus (3.Gervais Frederick 46); 10.Phillip Nelson.

Unused substitutes: 22.Jaheim Affan (GK), 20.Jahseem Pierre.

Coach: Kenwyne Jones

Referee: Nathalya Williams

SSFL Premier Division results

(Sat 14 Sep)

Queen’s Royal College 1 (Micah Nelson 87), Presentation (San F’do) 2 (Isaiah Jacob 27, Caleb Boyce 70) at QRC;

St Anthony’s College 2 (Terique Theobald 29, Jean-Marc Thomas 89), East Mucurapo Secondary 1 (Keysan Haynes 59) at Mucurapo Road;

Trinity College East 2 (Jonathan Emrith, Anderson Barnwell), Naparima College 3 (Aaron Raymond [2], Israel Joseph) at Trincity;

Fatima College 8 (Caden Trestrail 28 45+1, Luke Correia 37, Michael Chaves 59, Josiah Gobin 61, 67, Matthew Barrington 63, Levi Smith 86), Miracle Ministries PHS 0 at Mucurapo Road;

Signal Hill Secondary 3 (Jermaine Morgan 31, Kyle James 33, Israel Trim 90+2), San Juan North 2 (Jaheem Danclar 15, Jelani Valentine 50) at Signal Hill;

Speyside High 1 (Shyon George 40), St Benedict’s College 3 (Adam Pierre 10, Sahrai Mitchell 44, Ethan Trotman 60) at Speyside;

St Mary’s College 1 (Kyle Phillip), Malick Secondary 3 (Ronaldinho Richards, Tyrese Manswell, Jasheem Daley) at Serpentine Road;

Arima North Secondary 5 (Micha’el John 7, 18, Criston Gomez 24, 45 pen, Keston Richards 88), St Augustine Secondary 0 at Arima Velodrome.

Upcoming fixtures

(Wed 18 Sep)

Fatima College v Naparima College, 3.30pm, Mucurapo Road;

Malick Secondary v Signal Hill Secondary, 3.30pm, Serpentine Road;

Miracle Ministries PHS v St Mary’s College, 3.30pm, TBA;

Queen’s Royal College v Speyside High, 3.30pm, QRC;

San Juan North v East Mucurapo Secondary, 3.30pm, Bourg Mulatrasse;

St Augustine Secondary v Presentation (San F’do), 3.30pm, Warren Street;

St Anthony’s College v Arima North Secondary, 3.30pm, Westmoorings;

St Benedict’s College v Trinity College East, 3.30pm, Mahaica Sporting Complex.