Sig­nal Hill Sec­ondary School sig­nalled a stern warn­ing to its com­peti­tors in the Pre­mier­ship Di­vi­sion of the Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League (SS­FL) Wednes­day af­ter­noon with a come-from-be­hind 3-2 vic­to­ry over Trin­i­ty Col­lege East in Trinci­ty on their re­turn to the SS­FL's top-flight com­pe­ti­tion.

Strik­er Kyle James led the way for the To­bag­o­ni­ans with a hat-trick which came af­ter Deisean Plaza fired the Arou­ca lads ahead in the 33rd minute. James notched the equalis­er a minute lat­er in the 34th minute and then pushed them ahead in the 41st minute, 2-1.

James was an in­flu­en­tial fig­ure for his team clinch­ing the To­ba­go Boys' Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion ti­tle last year and then their even­tu­al third-place fin­ish in the Big Five Play-Off which se­cured their pro­mo­tion to this year's Pre­mier­ship Di­vi­sion.

But yes­ter­day, he was asked to lead the way in his team's great­est test in re­cent times, hav­ing not played in the SS­FL's top-flight com­pe­ti­tion since 2017.

Af­ter clos­ing off the first half with two items that led the To­bag­o­ni­ans to the half-time in­ter­val in a po­si­tion of as­cen­dan­cy, James pushed his team's ad­van­tage to 3-1 with his third goal of the game in the 50th minute.

The game ap­peared to have been done and dust­ed un­til Za­hir Ramkissoon breathed some life back in­to his team in Arou­ca, by find­ing the nets in the 70th minute for a 3-2 score­line. Hav­ing fin­ished the sea­son in the eighth po­si­tion last year, the Trin­i­ty Col­lege East lads may count this one as a point that they let slip.

Mean­while, Sig­nal Hill coach Down­ie Mar­celle said he was par­tic­u­lar­ly hap­py for his play­ers who had been re­ward­ed for their hard work over the past cou­ple of years.

"We have not been to the top-flight Pre­mier Di­vi­sion since 2017, so the play­ers re­al­ly worked hard last year, win­ning the Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion, and then fin­ish­ing third in the Big Five Play-Offs. But yes­ter­day, we were placed in a noisy cafe­te­ria for two hours, where we could do ab­solute­ly noth­ing. We could not even con­cen­trate, but I told the guys to use this ex­pe­ri­ence to strength­en them­selves on the field and they did just that," Mar­celle said.

Asked if he was con­cerned when the home team went ahead, Mar­celle said, "No, I was not be­cause I have con­fi­dence in my play­ers. In fact, any time we step on­to a foot­ball field, we go to win."

The To­bag­o­ni­ans will next face San Juan North, the 2023 East In­ter­Col win­ner on Sat­ur­day at home. Mar­celle said he is ex­pect­ing a tough con­test from the San Juan unit but be­ing at home, he in­tends to make it work for them.

Sat­ur­day's match­es (Start time 3.30 pm)

Ari­ma North vs St Au­gus­tine, Ari­ma Velo­drome

Fa­ti­ma Col­lege vs Mir­a­cle Min­istries, Fa­ti­ma Grd

Queen's Roy­al Col­lege vs Pre­sen­ta­tion, QRC

Sig­nal Hill vs San Juan North, Sig­nal Hill

Spey­side Sec vs St Bene­dict's Col­lege, Spey­side Grd

St An­tho­ny's Col­lege vs East Mu­cu­rapo, St An­tho­ny's Grd

St Mary's Col­lege vs Mal­ick Sec, CIC Grd

Trin­i­ty Col­lege East vs Na­pari­ma Col­lege, Trin­i­ty Grd