St. Joseph’s defend Under-18 Div. I Football title

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St. Joseph’s College Colombo emphatically trounced St. Patrick’s College Jaffna by 3 goals to 1 in the final of the All-Island Schools Under-18 Division I Football Tournament played for Renown President Cup at Racecourse ground.

From the first whistle both teams played attacking soccer which entertained the spectators around five thousand gathered to witness the game. Defending champions with some fine short passed threatened the defence of St. Patrick’s while the Jaffna school tempted the Josephian custodian with long range kicks.

However, it was the Josephians who broke the deadlock first in the 12th minute as Chamath Rasmitha scored from inside the box after receiving a high cross pass from Chalana Paramantha from the left flank.

Within four minutes St. Patrick’s equalised through D.H. Hains who sent the ball from 35 yards over the out of position goal keeper M.E. Kodikara. After the equalizer the Jaffna lads looked much settled team and played a good brand of soccer till the half time.

After the turn around the Joes looked a different side and started attacking the opposing goal area with some calculated passes which upset the defence of St. Patrick’s. In the 49th minute Asela Madhushan’s solo effort gave St. Joseph’s the second goal. He dribbled past three defenders and slotted the ball into the net.

Seven minutes later St. Patrick’s skipper S. Abeeshan was shown a straight red card for booting on the face of Joe player Chamad Rashmika who was already felled on the field. And in the 62th minute once again Madhushan scored his second goal after the exchanges between Joe’s skipper Jason N. Fernando and P.L. Pingo.

With a few minutes left in the game another unwanted incident resulted in two red cards of each side. Salinda Cooray and Shanthan elbowed each other and the referee Tharanga gave away the marching orders to both. Later it was learned Cooray was admitted at the General Hospital due to a fracture on his forehead.

Asela Madhushan of St. Joseph’s won two special awards for the Best Player as well as the Highest Goal Scorer. He scored 16 goals in nine matches. Meanwhile St. Peter’s beat Zahira on penalties by 5 to 1 to clinch the third place. Renown Sports Club sponsored the final round matches.