In what will be a rematch of last year’s final, Santa Rosa will faceoff with Port Kaituma after the former edged North West Secondary 7-6 on sudden death kicks in their semi-final affair when the Digicel Secondary Schools Football Championship continued yesterday.
With the scores locked 1-1 at the end of normal time at the Kumaka ground, the large crowd was treated to a nerve wracking showpiece to decide the outcome.
Tasked with taking the first strike from the distance, Santa Rosa’s Keith DaSilva would convert as he fired his effort past custodian Vivian Antonio. Clovis Calistro would level the score for North West as he netted in their first attempt.
The second round of kicks would witness both sides scoring in the shape of Santa Rosa’s Hyde Williams and North West’s Travis Inniss. The momentum of the fixture would change in the third round as Lexter Fredericks was denied by Antonio, firing a tame effort into his path.
North West would quickly capitalise as Orin Charles netted with a left footed shot into the right corner. The visitors would maintain their lead in the fourth round as both teams scored, with Jonathan Henry netting for the home side Santa Rosa and Daniel Lynch scoring for North West.
Alex Harris would then give Santa Rosa a slim hope as he netted their final attempt from the distance. Only needing to convert to seal the win and with the crowd screaming for him to fail, custodian Antonio hurriedly struck his effort into the net without the consent of the official’s whistle.
Asked to retake the spot-kick by the referee, Antonio would succumb to pressure and nerves as he fired his effort out of the playing area, igniting wild celebrations within the partisan crowd and Santa Rosa team.
The match would then move into the sudden death round and both sides would score to make it 5-5 as Alex Jaime scored for the home side and Joel Gilkes scored for the visitors.
North West would then be given another chance to clinch the win as Brandon Atkinson failed from the mark in the sixth round for the home side, denied brilliantly by the full stretch save from Antonio to his left.
However once again, the visitors would fail to capitalise as Ronnie Perez struck a poor effort at the opposing custodian, sparking another round of festivity.
The score would then become 6-6 in the eighth round as both sides scored through Oscar Harris of Santa Rosa and Bobby David of North West. The home side would then push ahead at 7-6 in the ninth round as Dwayne Rebeiro scored.
Needing a conversion to push the fixture into the next round, North West’s Junior Willis would see his tame effort easily parried to safety, sealing his side’s exit from event and sparking celebrations on the field from the home team and its large support group.
With the win, Santa Rosa will now lock horns with arch-rivals Port Kaituma tomorrow at the same venue to decide the Region #1 title. The winner of that match will represent the zone on Saturday against Region #2 winner Charity Secondary in a national playoff at the same locale.
While both sides failed to impose their respective will, North West were simply poor in the attacking third as they failed to register a shot on target in half-North West
Prior to the fixture’s dramatic end, substitute forward Deon Gomes gave the hosts the initial lead in the 38th minute.
Pouncing on a momentary lapse by the defence to latch onto a quick right sided throw, Gomes would race into the right side of the box before firing past the advancing ‘keeper into the lower left hand corner.
Upon the resumption of the second period of the 80th minute encounter, Santa Rosa would be given a golden opportunity to double their lead as they were awarded a spot-kick in the 45th minute for a clumsy tackle.
Their attempts would double their lead would be thwarted as Antonio smartly denied the attempt to his left, keeping his side in the fixture.
The visitors would eventually push the matchup into its dramatic conclusion as Innis scored in the 68th minute, lashing a powerful right footed 28 yard free kick from the centre of the field, which took a deflection of the collapsing wall and settled into the left corner beyond the reach of the diving custodian.
