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Digicel Schools Football Championship…
Annai claw back to down St. Ignatius on penalties to remain #1 in Region 9
By Franklin Wilson in Lethem
They played like true champions despite finding themselves trailing from early in the piece against a determined opponent but in the end, the spirit and fight of what champions are made of prevailed and took them over the line.
It was a fitting climax to the Region 9 segment of the Digicel Schools Football Championship yesterday afternoon at the St. Ignatius ground, Lethem when defending Regional champions Annai Secondary School fought their way back from behind to nail a determined St. Ignatius Secondary on kicks from the penalty mark after a 1-1 regulation time scoreline and advance to the national playoffs.
The crowd was fantastic from start to finish and while it was the St. Ignatius home ground, the majority of the fans were backing Annai.
It was the host school which took the lead very early in the clash when their most potent forward and their strongest player, David Coates capitalized on an early defensive lapse from Annai to hit home in the 5th minute past goalkeeper Neil Allicock.
But thereafter it was Annai which dominated most of the play as they set up shop in St. Ignatius’ half, however, their potency in the final third was miserable as a plethora of opportunities went wide of the mark.
St. Ignatius’ custodian Kenford Robinson was visibly limping early in the match but Annai failed to capitalize as they sprayed shots all over the place except to goal.
The early chance Annai gave up with their main defender, Neston Browne out of position almost came back to haunt them.
Browne played much more disciplined as was very effective in marking out danger man Coates for the remainder of the match despite a few anxious moments when St. Ignatius threatened in the second half; one time back to back clearances in the six yards box was required to keep them from increasing the score.
But most of the possession was being controlled by Annai; the crowd never gave up on them and kept urging them on. Many of the women in the stand kept demanding that they needed a goal and they need it now.
With 10 minutes remaining to full time, Annai finally got what they were fighting for all along, the elusive equalizer.
An excellent pass into the area found the hungry Nairon Williams who gratefully accepted and made no mistake when he hammered his shot past Kenford Robinson to wild celebrations from his teammates and fans in the stand and around the ground.
One could have felt the tension being released with Williams’ goal.
It was all that Annai wanted since they knew that from thereon in with St. Ignatius being deflated, they held the upper hand and were more mentally fortified to take care of business, and so it turned out.
Kicks from the penalty mark were the next option after the final whistle was sounded with the score tied at 1-1.
After their Captain Sherral Daniels missed their first kick, Annai sunk the next three shots and that was good enough to take them to victory as they retained the number one spot as the best in Region 9.
St. Ignatius scored with their first and third kicks but missed the 2nd, 4th and 5th kicks. It was disappointment for them but joy for the winners.
Both teams received medals and trophies compliments of Digicel as reward for their hard work.
Additionally, the champions were presented with a complete set of spanking new uniforms by Digicel’s Althea Pollard, while another Digicel representative, Talisa Damon assisted with the distribution of medals to both teams.
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