A stupendous free-kick by the tournament’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) Jobe Caesar sealed the 1-0 victory for Chase Academic Foundation in the final of the Digicel’s Schools Football Championships against defending four-time champions Christianburg/Wismar Secondary on Sunday at the National Stadium, Providence.
Dethroned: The former champions Christianburg/Wismar Secondary School and Director of Sport Christopher JonesThird place finishers Sir Leon’s Lesson collect their trophy from Digicel’s Head of Customer Care Sherwin OsboureJobe Caesar collects his MVP award from the tournament’s Co-ordinator Lavern Fraser
Watched by a small but boisterous crowd, Caesar produced a stunner of a goal, taking a free kick with his right foot from the edge of the 18-yard box that sailed into the top left corner of the net in the 24th minute.
Moments later Nicolas McArthur had a chance to double the scores with an excellent header that went over inches over the cross bar.
Chase continued to be the dominant team, creating far more opportunities that went wanting but they still managed to finish the first half ahead of the defending champions.
The second half began far less attractive than that of the first stanza with Chase playing somewhat of a “holding ball” which nullified the attacking atmosphere of the match.
It was until the 75th that Chase’s Ryan Hackett brought the crowd to life with powerful strike from inside the box that required a leaping save by the custodian to keep the score line from changing.
The Linden unit were becoming wary of the fact that time was running out to retain their title, as they got a corner that which they strangely floated into the hands of the keeper without any pressure being applied.
84 minutes on the clock, Stephon Reynolds looked to seal the win, taking a shot that crashed into the side netting.
The fight for an equaliser continued for the Linden unit but it was to no avail as the city team smartly defended to cop their first title after after finishing as runners-up last year.
The Chase team walked with $1, 00,000 which will go towards funding a school project and the corresponding trophy while Christiansburg received $700,000 and their trophy.
Earlier in the day Sir Leon’s Lesson defeated four-time Region five champions Bush Lot Secondary 4-2, to win the third place play-off.
A double by Adrian Aaron in the 30th in the 45+1 and supporting goals by Omari James (55th) and Keifer Brandt (69th) sealed allowed their team to collect the $400,000 prize for their third placed finish.
For the Berbice unit, Tyrone Miller (7th) and Shaquille DeHarte (71st) scored in a losing cause which meant their team finished in fourth, walking away with $350,000 and the corresponding trophy; a $100,000 prize was awarded to each zone winner.
