Chase, Waramuri punch tickets to Milo Schools’ Football final

It will be déjà vu this Sunday, April 28th, when Chase’s Academic Foundation of Georgetown and Waramuri Primary Top of Region One battle for the 10th Milo Schools’ Under-18 Football championship.
In what is almost a direct re-enactment of last year’s final, Waramuri Primary Top have ascended to this exalted position instead of their regional compatriots Santa Rosa Secondary; and this final matchup comes on the heels of a nail-biting semifinal hosted at the Ministry of Education (MoE) Ground on Thursday night, where Chase’s Academy and Waramuri Primary registered contrasting wins.
Chase’s Academy drubbed President’s College 4-0 in the first of two encounters. Bryan Wharton opened the scoring in the 15th minute, and Justin Alcindor made it a 2-0 affair four minutes later. Thereafter, the goals were hard to come by as a mixture of PC’s defensive tactics and sub-par finishing kept Chase’s strikers at bay.
However, Omar Sam and Shaquan David found the back of the net in the 79th and 80th minutes respectively, to push their tally to 4 before the game was called.
Chase’s Omar Sam later discussed the game and their confidence heading into the final. “Well, the game was very difficult at first, because we had a poor start, but then we get the momentum and come into the second half with full encouragement from the coach talking, and come out-and-out in 100% in the second half to get a victory,” the Chase’s Academy forward shared.

Sam said about the missed scoring opportunities, “No, mistakes have to happen. We just have to go back on the training pitch, correct the mistakes, and come back in the finals and execute the decisions. Yeah, we’re very confident in the finals. We’ll win the finals,” a confident Sam added.
On the other hand, Waramuri Primary Top took Dolphin Secondary down to penalties, after staging a stunning second-half comeback.
Ezekiel Frank David and Candel Hazel netted early for Dolphin, in the 3rd and 11th minutes respectively, to get the match off to an exciting start. However, Dolphin could not replicate their early heroics, while Waramuri came back ‘hot off the press’ in the second half to level the scores.
Zundel Abrams opened the second with a powerful strike in the 46th, while Odell Holmes converted a penalty in the 62nd to level the scores.
When Extra time bore no fruit, kicks from the penalty spot were taken, and Waramuri prevailed 4-3.
In the aftermath, Waramuri’s Captain Odell Holmes spoke about their coach’s encouragement that spurred their comeback. He said, “Well, I think the semifinal game was very good, it was very challenging for us. It was a good game. Our coach told us that, those two goals, just take it like nobody scored, and just like we’re going into a fresh game, and keep focus; and that’s what we did,” Holmes related to this publication.
“I think it would be a much better game than this,” Holmes added regarding the final.
Chase Academy and Waramuri Top will be vying for a $300,000 first prize this Sunday, while the loser of that contest will settle for the $200,000 second prize.
President’s College and Dolphin Secondary will also battle for a $150,000 third prize, with fourth place receiving $75,000. The prizes will go towards school projects.