St Ignatius Secondary triumphs in Blue Water U15 tourney

An excellent display of goalkeeping from a future talent out of St Ignatius Secondary on Sunday propelled that team to an inaugural victory in the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) -Blue Water Shipping Girls’ Under-15 National Championship.
The final showdown was hotly contested by two teams from Guyana’s extreme geographical points, Region One’s Waramuri Primary Top and Region Nine’s St Ignatius Secondary.
Waramuri had numerous chances to shut down the game in regulation time, but their finishing was not at its best in the feature match. At the other end of the pitch, eventual MVP of the tournament, Sonia Simon was finding it difficult to get past Waramuri’s defence. As such, regulation time ended in a stalemate, requiring a decision on penalty kicks.

There, St Ignatius’ Shantel Joe showed her quality, holding her nerves to execute three saves, leading her team to a 3-2 win on penalties.
Following the game, an ecstatic St Ignatius Captain, LaDonna Simon shared how she felt about the team’s win.
Simon said, “It went well for all of us, I thought we would have lost. Without our coach, we couldn’t make it. My players did very well and they worked hard to win this game.”
“Yes, all of us want to play to the national team,” Simon disclosed about her teammates’ hopes.
Meanwhile, St Ignatius Coach Gabriel David revealed that it was the keeper’s hope that the clash would go down to penalties.

“We didn’t want it to go down to penalties, but it was the goalkeeper’s wish. She was confident in herself and we were confident in her. So, she said, ‘Sir, I want it to go down to penalties’ and I said ‘okay, it’s up to you’ and she did exceptionally well. I’m proud of her,” the Coach related to Guyana Times Sport.
David went on to talk about Joe’s journey as a goalkeeper, “At first, she couldn’t even save, but we trained her. She picked up, she learned really quickly and I’m very happy for her.”

Earlier in the day at the GFF’s National Training Center, St Ignatius booked their spot in the final after edging Santa Rosa Secondary 1-0. Meanwhile, Waramuri Primary Top had defeated Bartica Secondary 2-0 to move on to the final.
In the third- place playoff, Santa Rosa Secondary topped Bartica Secondary.
While St Ignatius’ Joe was named the best goalkeeper in the tournament, Santa Rosa’s Veronica Chatta was the highest goalscorer with 19 goals in the tournament.
Aside from trophies and medals, each of the top three schools were rewarded with a complement of football gear.