St. Peter’s College prove their prowess at Soccer
Eleven tenaciously determined Peterites bludgeoned their way to a 3-0 win over their spirited rivals the Josephians who fought right to the end at the “Annual Big Mmatch” soccer encounter played at the CR & FC ground recently.
The Senior team after winning the annual Joe-Pete Soccer encounter
To grace the occasion Rt. Rev. Fr. Maxwell Silva – Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Colombo, Rector of St. Joseph College – Rev. Fr. Travis Gabriel, Rector of St. Peters College – Rev. Fr. Trevor Martin and The incumbent President of the FFSL Anura de Silva were present.
This was their 25th annual encounter which provided the large spectators, mostly lustily cheering schoolboys with entertaining soccer.
The Peterite boys, particularly, their forwards had a finesse which the Maradana boys lacked and it was this that brought them the coveted victory.
These two teams have met at 25 occasions in the Annual Big Match since 1989, out of which St. Joseph’s won 11 matches and St. Peter’s 13 and one ended up with the title shared by both sides.
Niresh Sunderaraj of St. Peter’s was adjudged the Man-of-the-Match and their custodian Ashfaq Ayub as the Best Goalkeeper.
It was the Peterites’ stubborn defence comprising of their skipper Angelo Perera, Perumal Praveen, Dananjaya Supramitha and Lasith Jayasinghe baulked their opponent from scoring.
St. Peter’s officials with FFSL top guns
The Goalkeeper Ashfaq Ayub was safe and on occasions brilliant. The Peterite players makers comprising Jerome Kaushal, Peshala Rajakaruna, Niran Fernando, Ishan Danusha and Michel Anandaraj had the opposing defence always of their toes with their fine understanding and individual skills.
Full credit should go to the energetic coach Isuru Perera and the Goalkeeper coach M.A.M. Azwar for the wonderful display of the team.
During the period 2014-2015 the St. Peter’s senior team has performed extremely well and gave a good run against leading schools in the calibre of Colombo Zahira, Al Hameediya Al Husainiya, Maris Stella, De Mazenod, Joseph Vas, Holy Cross, S. Thomas to name a few.
The Under-19 team stepped into the season with the Kotmale Chox Invitation Schools Tournament, dominating all their group stage matches beating Lumbini 4-0, Maliyadeva 14-1, S. Thomas 2-1, Dharmaraja Kandy 4-0, and St. Benedicts 5-0, scoring an overall 29 goals, the highest score in the tournament, to hold the top position in Group ‘A’.
In the semi-final St. Peter’s beat Al-Hameediya Al-Husainiya 5-2 to enter the final. It was unfortunate they bow out in the final 2-1 by wafer margin after leading in the first half to Colombo Zahira who lost to Al- Hameediya Al Husainiya 4-2, in the group stage.
This gave a true indication of St. Peter’s which is a rugby playing school, to prove their powers in soccer as well, with technical advancement.
The year 2015 is a very significant year for St. Peter’s football. It produced five talented players in the calibre of Afhan Akram, Perumal Praveen, Niresh Sunderaraj, Peshala Rajakaruna and Ishan Danusha who represented the country at the Asian school Football Championship in China and the Asian Youth Football Tournament held in Bangladesh.
For the first time in the history of St. Peter’s College football, young Peterite Sabeer Ragooniya captained the Under-14 Youth National team at the Asian Football Championship held in Kazakhstan.
This year, all age groups kept the Blue, White and Gold flag of St. Peter’s fly fluttering in the sky. In addition to the senior team beating St. Joseph’s at the Annual Big Match, the Under-15 team beat them 2-0 and the Under-13 held them for a nil-all draw.
Further, the Under-15 team won the District School Football Championship beating T.B. Jayah 4-2 in the quarter-final, won against Colombo Zahira1-0 in the semi-final and beat Al- Hameediya Al Husainiya 4-2 in the final.
In fact the Under-10 kids too became champions at the Under-10 Futsal Tournament held recently beating Colombo Zahira 2-0, St. Joseph’s 4-0, Royal 2-0 and held Holy Cross to a nil-all draw.
From the above facts and figures it is crystal clear that St. Peter’s football has a good future ahead, particularly the Senior team of which most of the players have gained enough experience and exposure playing here and abroad.
With more hard training and guidance, we hope that they will perform well and win couple of major cup finals in the near future.
The secret behind the success of St. Peter’s football which came to limelight within a period nine months, was the inauguration of the Football Foundation spear – headed by that veteran footballer of St. Peter’s Susan Bandara with the support and assistance of few past soccerites and the old boys in the calibre of M. Zarook (former captain), Anthony Pillai (National player and the CEO of the FFSL), Viraj de Alwis (the Secretary), Viraj de Silva (the Treasurer), Sampath WIckramasinghe (the Incumbent President) to name a few, who steered a well-made grass-root plan to improve and develop the standard of football in the college.
The Foundation realising the important of football nurseries invited M.F. Hassimdeen (Jnr) and a Spanish Asst. coach Alvaro Hernandez to train the kids.
These kids too have performed reasonably well in the Under-10, Under-13 and Under-15 School tournaments. Both coaches have done a marvelous job so far. However there is a long way to go where both of them have the knowledge and experience to achieve the future goals.
In fact, the Foundation also achieved another milestone for football by initiating a Rs. 1 million fund for the education of the players that was handed over to the college authorities at the beginning of 2015.
I had the privilege of coaching St. Peter’s football during 1980 – 1983, when Late Rev. Fr. Joe Wickramasinghe was the Rector, and at present helping St. Peter’s as a Technical Advisor of the Football Foundation.
All these changes took place with the arrival of the new Rector. Rev. Fr. Trevor Martin and the priest community in the calibre of Rev. Fr. Milan Bernard as the Prefect of the Games and Rev. Fr. Thilina Pathum as the sports coordinator who boosted football at St. Peters along with other sports.
Their unstinted support and encouragement is indeed praiseworthy. The vision of Fr. Rector Martin to produce value based productive citizens who will be an asset to the society through discipline, education and sport was highly appreciated by the old boys and parents.
The Incumbent President Sampath Wickramasinghe and the committee comprising warren Dalton, Asiri Wickremasuriya, Gehan de Silva, Tharanga Fernando, Rifaath Fuard, Arjuna Muttiah, Janaka Katugampola, Firaz Faiz , Alex Marshalle , Joshua Fernando, Supun Ranasinghe and Viraj de Silva will have to now continue from here with commitment and dedication for the future of St. Peter’s football.
It must be recorded with utmost gratitude the selfless services and contributions rendered by the Masters in charge Priyadharshana Cooray and Kanisha Perera, the coaches, the old boys – here and abroad and all well wishes for the development of football at St. Peter’s.