St. Peter’s down Trinity to enter semi finals
A Peterite is surounded by Trinity defenders in the Milo Knockout quarter-final match - Pic by Priyantha Wickramaarachchi
It was almost a carbon copy of the first quarter-final of the Milo U20 inter-schools knockout tournament when St Peter’s trailing 21-24 came back with vengeance to pull off a stunner against Trinity – beating them by 38 points to 24 in the second-quarter final played at the Sugathadasa Stadium yesterday.
The Peterites were successful in adding 14 points in the second half while denying the Trinitians to make any headway. They made up their points through four goals and two tries to the two goals and two tries scored by Trinity.
The game was evenly balanced since the whistle for the start was blown with the pendulum turning equally even though the Peterites took charge in the halfway stage of the first session when they took a commanding lead 21-12.
It was St Peter’s who made the first move to put the score in the seventh minute through a try by skipper and full back Diyath Fernando with centre Theekshana Dissanayake adding the extra points.
Five minutes later Trinity succeeded to decrease the lead with centre Warren Weerakoon going for an unconverted try but the Peterites fought their way back three minutes with centre Theekshana Dissanayake going over for a try and he himself making the conversion.
This was followed with two tries being scored within a space of three minutes with Trinity’s fly half Akith Sakalasooriya touching down and full back Rashean Bandaranayake adding the extra points. The Peterites counter attacked through a try scored by scrum half Jason Karunaratne and Theekshana added the extra points. Peterites were comfortable with a 21-12 lead.
The Lions showed that they were not going to be easy nuts to crack as they bounced back in the latter part scoring back to back tries to take over the lead. Yet, before the short whistle was blown with the skipper and No 8 Nathan Yee and the other by centre Warren Weerakoon added two tries to the Pete tally. Only one of those tries were converted — Lions led 24-21 at the breather.
However the second half saw the Peterites completely dominating proceedings and had the Lions on the defence. St Peter’s meant business in this session as they started off with their skipper Diyath going over for a try in the second minute and Theekshana making the conversion for them to take over the lead 38-24.
The Peterites surged ahead further when in the 12th minute prop forward Faiz Abdullla barged his way for an unconverted try. Two minutes away from the long whistle scrum half Jason Karunaratne put the issue beyond doubt for a Peterite win with an unconverted try initiated from a five metre line out.
Trinity’s last minute effort did not materialize as it could not prevent a win for St Peter’s which was their second win against the Lions this season having earlier in the won in the league segment.
St Peter’s opposition in the semi finals will now be the winners of the quarter final encounter between Isipathana and St Anthony’s Katugastota scheduled to be played today at the same venue.
Referee- Dinka Peiris