St Cyprian’s Preparatory Boys’ School are the champions of this year’s BICO Primary School Football Competition after beating All Saints Primary 2-0 in yesterday’s final at the Wildey Turf.
This is the first time in the school’s history they have won the competition having previously lost the 2012 final to Charles F Broome.
In a final marred by many stoppages and set pieces, it was All Saints who started the game with more impetus as they drew early saves from the keeper and narrowly missed from a wide free kick.
Set pieces appeared to be a particular strength of theirs but it led to their downfall as a clearance from a corner allowed St Cyprian’s to counter quickly with players already committed up the pitch.
All it took was one incisive ball down the right to Seth Goodridge for St Cyprian’s to open the scoring. It was a composed finish which belied the years of the eleven-year-old who slotted past the despairing dive of the goalkeeper into the bottom left corner.
The side from St Peter came close to equalising towards the end of the half as a ball into the box ricocheted off the back of a St Cyprian defender and looked certain to nestle into the back of the net, if not for a reflex save.
The atmosphere remained tense throughout the second half as both of these risk-averse teams jostled for control. This nutritional final would eventually be decided by a goalkeeping error. After doing well at his near post to deny Christian Reid, All-Saints’ keeper Jelani Sealy fumbled the follow-up shot from Logan Pounder and it trickled over the line, sealing their fate in the process.
Coach Ramon Greaves took pride in seeing his team win their first championship.
“It was great honestly, especially when we only had one practice session!” he began. “What was key to our success today was keeping the game basic: we defend together, we attack together. The boys followed the instructions to a tee and we came out successful.”
Greaves added that succession planning was part of his thinking when building his tournament-winning squad. Acknowledging the competition was primarily one for eleven-year olds.
“We have nine Class 4 students (in this squad) and the other seven boys are in Infants B just so that we can always be competitive. This victory has been coming since COVID-19 because this is the first time since that we came out to play football. The boys have been working hard and I must say thanks to the parents and the different clubs because they ensured the fundamentals were there which made it very easy for me.”
In the third-place play-off earlier in the day Eden Lodge dismantled St George Primary 4-0 to receive their bronze medals. (JC)