Petes devoured at Mt. Lavinia

By Rangi Akbar, Pic by Gemunu Wellage

A Peterite player is held by an army of Thomian defenders.

Some games have to be seen to be believed. S. Thomas’ who last week went down to St. Anthony’s Katugastota made mighty St. Peter’s bite the dust at Mt. Lavinia yesterday, They pulled off a stunning 22-19 win in a game where the fortunes fluctuated like swing of a pendulum.

The high riding Peterites came into the game with the hope of recording three wins in-a-row. But the Thomians had other ideas. They capitalized on the Peterite mistakes with telling effect and ultimately ran out winners by a goal and three tries to that of a goal, 3 penalties and a drop goal by the Peterites. In the process they also won the Archibald Perera Memorial Trophy which had eluded them for the last two years.

The Thomians took first blood in the third minute when Thammanagama scored mid left and Heshan Gunaratne converted to put them ahead at 7-0. A few minutes later Jeremy Fernando put over a penalty and Thomians were sitting pretty at 7-0.

St. Peter’s dominated the game to such effect next when they kept the Thomians pinned to their end of territory without much success. Dilshan Paul scored a peach of a try and Harsha Weerakkody converted to put the Peterites on par with the Thomians at 7 each. Just before the breather Harsha Weerakkody put over a penalty and St. Peter’s led 10-7.

The tit-for-tat scoring continued on resumption with prop R.P.S. Gunasekera scoring for S. Thomas’ and St.Peter’s snatching a lead back once again through a neat drop goal by Harsha Weerakkody to lead 13-12. S. Thomas’ snatched the lead at 17-13 through a try by Jeewaka Hewawitharane and St. Peter’s took the lead at 17-6 through a penalty. St. Peter’s strengthened the lead at 19-17 through another Weerakkody penalty.

With tension mounting high in the final minutes Heshan Gunaratne put over a penalty for the Thomians and with time running bye Shaveen Kapuwatte went over for a try to give the Thomians a glorious win at 22-19.

Mr. Aruna Jayasekera refereed. If the junior games played earlier is any indication for the future S. Thomas’ won the Under 12 game 0-17. They also won the Under 14 game at 14-7. St. Peter’s won the Under 16 match at 12-7 and S. Thomas’ triumphed 20-0 in the Under 18 clash.