A brace from sub­sti­tute Jay­don Car­ring­ton helped St Bene­dict’s Col­lege to record a con­vinc­ing 4-0 drub­bing of Ari­ma North Sec­ondary School, known as ‘The Di­al Dy­namos’ in the Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League (SS­FL) Pre­mier­ship Di­vi­sion, at the Ari­ma Velo­drome, Wednes­day (Sep­tem­ber 30).

The re­sult con­fined ‘The Di­al Dy­namos’ to their first loss of the sea­son in five match­es; how­ev­er, the South­ern­ers re­mained un­beat­en. De­spite their un­beat­en stroll to date, it was St. Mary’s Col­lege that as­sumed the top spot in the league with 13 points with a 2-0 vic­to­ry over Na­pari­ma Col­lege at Lewis Street in San Fer­nan­do.

Af­ter an ear­ly pe­ri­od of dom­i­nance in the League, the ‘Di­al Dy­namos’ faced steady re­sis­tance at home from the un­beat­en St. Bene­dict’s Col­lege in the top-of-the-ta­ble clash.

The usu­al­ly dan­ger­ous Malique Adams led a pa­tient at­tack, which shat­tered for the most part when they en­tered Bene­dict’s de­fen­sive third.

It was in­stead ‘The La Ro­maine Li­ons,’ whose roar fea­tured promi­nent­ly on the day. In fact, the South­ern­ers as­sumed the top po­si­tion from a ball that was cleared down­field by goal­keep­er Naf­ta­ki Charles for Eli­jah David, who gal­loped past his mark­er on the right side be­fore hit­ting the ball low and hard past Ari­ma goal­keep­er Jared Wheel­er from an acute an­gle in the sev­enth minute of play.

And as the Ari­ma lads fid­dle to get their game to­geth­er, the vis­i­tors added an­oth­er in the 17th minute. This time, David turned provider with a sud­den turn of pace down the right flank where he made a meal out of Essien Thomas, on­ly for his right-side cen­ter to be cleared as far as Samuel Bal­four in­side their own penal­ty area.

Bal­four struck the ball hard one time past the Ari­ma cus­to­di­an, giv­ing his team a 2-0 lead with­out tak­ing a first touch.

Ari­ma re­spond­ed soon af­ter as the South­ern­ers swooped in­to the po­si­tion of as­cen­dan­cy. Malique Adam led a des­per­ate fight­back but faced a vi­cious de­fen­sive struc­ture any­time they en­tered the St. Bene­dict’s de­fen­sive third, as the team even­tu­al­ly re­turned to the dress­ing rooms for the half­time in­ter­val.

The ‘Di­al Dy­namos’ im­proved their game in the sec­ond pe­ri­od of play and looked more con­fi­dent. And they came close to their first goal when Oneil Dy­er lift­ed the ball in­to the St. Bene­dict’s penal­ty area from a left-side free kick that the South­ern­ers failed to clear. And when it rolled invit­ing­ly for Malique Mar­rast, the tal­ent­ed mid­field­er struck it low, on­ly to see it cleared by a de­fend­er in the 52nd minute.

In front of their cheer­ing crowd at the Ari­ma fa­cil­i­ty, the South­ern­ers’ de­fense ap­peared to have won the con­test against their at­tack­ers on the day. In­stead, it was the vis­i­tors that came close to a third item in the 58th minute. Orande Par­ris, the tar­get of a long thread­ed ball that fol­lowed a neat build-up down the right flank, can­tered in­to the Ari­ma box, on­ly to see his shot crash off the up­right in the 58th minute.

But they scored in the 78th minute. A hor­ri­ble de­fen­sive blun­der al­lowed sub­sti­tute Jay­don Car­ring­ton to race through from a long throw that was head­ed on, and he caught Wheel­er well off his line with a lob from some 30 yards out for a 3-0 mar­gin.

Still, the South­ern­ers were not fin­ished, as they fur­ther rubbed salt in­to the wounds of their op­po­nents, helped by an­oth­er de­fen­sive blun­der. Car­ring­ton’s pres­ence seemed to have been ig­nored as a long thread­ed ball end­ed in his path, and he raced to the goal be­fore slip­ping the ball be­yond the ad­vanc­ing Wheel­er for a 4-0 score­line, main­tain­ing their un­beat­en run in the league.

YES­TER­DAY’S RE­SULTS

Sig­nal Hill 3 (J’meke Wat­son 2, Ackin Dun­can Jr) vs Pre­sen­ta­tion 2 (Aiden Mon­tano, Tyrese Hard­ing)

Trin­i­ty Mo­ka 1 (Jashan Forde) vs St An­tho­ny 1

Mal­ick 5 (Jah­da Ri­ley 35th, 40th, Keisean Spence 56th, Gio­van­ni Hosan­ny 70th, Joshua Portell 86th) vs St Au­gus­tine 1

Mu­cu­rapo West 3 vs Spey­side 1 (Riquelme Phillip)

Fa­ti­ma 5 (Ji­air Nan­ton, Je­re­mai Nan­ton 2, Ja­heam Bai­ley 2) vs Trin­i­ty East 1 (Eli­jah Di­az)

QRC 2 (Samp­son Williams, Jer­vais Fred­er­icks) vs San Juan North 1 (Gabriel Forde)

CIC 2 (Deron Black­man, Jae­don Thomas) vs Naps 1

Lat­est SS­FL Stand­ing

Teams*P*W*D*L*GF*GA*GD*PTS

1. St. Mary’s Col­lege*5*5*0*0*16*2*14*15

2. St Bene­dict’s Col­lege*5*4*0*1*14*3*11*12

3. Ari­ma North Sec*5*4*0*1*18*9*9*12

4. Sig­nal Hill Sec*5*4*0*1*13*5*8*12

5. Hillview Col­lege*4*3*0*1*18*10*8*9

6. Fa­ti­ma Col­lege*5*2*2*1*16*12*4*8

7. Trin­i­ty Col­lege Mo­ka*5*2*1*2*9*14*-5*7

8. Spey­side Sec*6*2*1*3*8*19*-11*7

9. Mal­ick Sec­ondary*5*2*0*3*12*12*-0*6

10. Queen’s Roy­al Col­lege*5*1*2*2*3*7*-4*5

11. Mu­cu­rapo West Sec*5*1*2*2*7*11*-4*5

12. Na­pari­ma*4*1*1*2*11*6*5*4

13. St Au­gus­tine Sec­ondary*4*1*1*2*8*13*-5*4

14. Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege*4*1*1*2*6*8*-2*4

15. San Juan North*5*1*0*4*7*13*-6*3

16. Trin­i­ty Col­lege East*5*1*0*4*7*17*-10*3

17. St An­tho­ny’s*5*0*1*4*5*16*-11*0