Fa­ti­ma Col­lege, the reign­ing na­tion­al In­ter-Col cham­pi­on, Na­pari­ma Col­lege and San Juan North Sec­ondary will face tricky tests as they seek to main­tain their per­fect start to the 2023 Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League (SS­FL) Pre­mier Di­vi­sion when round five match­es take place On Wednesday from 4 pm.

Four-time cham­pi­ons Na­pari­ma leads the 16-team ta­ble with a +27 goal dif­fer­ence, from Fa­ti­ma (+18) and San Juan North (+ 9), all three teams on a max­i­mum of 12 points from four match­es played. An­oth­er for­mer cham­pi­on, Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege of San Fer­nan­do, has climbed to the fourth spot with sev­en points, one more than Mal­ick Sec­ondary, Ari­ma North Sec­ondary, Spey­side Sec­ondary, Queen’s Roy­al; Col­lege (QRC), St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege, and East Mu­cu­rapo, while de­fend­ing cham­pi­on St Bene­dict’s Col­lege sits in the 11th spot with four points from as many match­es.

In what could eas­i­ly be the match-of-the-day, the Hut­son Charles-coached Fa­ti­ma Col­lege has tast­ed the agony of de­feat just once this school year, that loss see­ing them com­ing out at the wrong end of an en­ter­tain­ing 4-3 re­sult against St Bene­dict’s in the sea­son-open­ing NGC Cup clash at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, on Sep­tem­ber 8.

Since that loss, how­ev­er, Charles has been able to get the best from his squad as they have been very lethal in front of goal with 18 con­ver­sions, in­spired in the at­tack by Michael Chaves and Aidan De Gannes each with four goals, with­out con­ced­ing a sin­gle item.

Fa­ti­ma has thus far start­ed to be very im­pres­sive in rat­tling off wins over St An­tho­ny’s (7-0), Spey­side (1-0), East Mu­cu­rapo (5-0), and Pleas­antville Sec­ondary (5-0) and with Michael Chaves and Aidan De Gannes, (four goals each) lead­ing the way, Fa­ti­ma will be look­ing send their home fans hap­py by ex­act­ing sweet re­venge at the high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed game which will be played at their school ground in Mu­cu­rapo.

Af­ter tak­ing the NGC Cup, St Bene­dict’s fal­tered by sur­pris­ing­ly drop­ping its first two match­es against San Juan North (4-3) and East Mu­cu­rapo (1-0) be­fore blank­ing Bish­op’s High 3-0, fol­lowed by a 1-1 draw in its last game at home to Ari­ma North Sec­ondary. They will, how­ev­er, start to­day as un­der­dogs, es­pe­cial­ly as key play­er Der­rel Gar­cia will be un­avail­able for what should be a tough road trip.

Na­pari­ma has been in un­for­giv­ing and pun­ish­ing form so far, ham­mer­ing home a league-best 29 goals in just four match­es (giv­ing up just two), in­clud­ing a 7-0 ham­mer­ing of East Mu­cu­rapo Sec­ondary in their last out­ing. With the in­spi­ra­tional Kanye Fran­cis, the league’s top scor­er with six goals, at the fore along with Akiel Vesprey (4 goals), they will be ex­pect­ed to eas­i­ly get past a stut­ter­ing Mal­ick, which was stunned 1-2 at home by Spey­side Sec­ondary.

De­spite start­ing as huge favourites, coach Travis Mul­raine and his Na­pari­ma squad will not be tak­ing the vis­i­tors for grant­ed as al­though they will be at home at Lewis Street, San Fer­nan­do, they will be aware that Mal­ick is still a dan­ger­ous team which is ca­pa­ble of scor­ing goals as they matched their own 10-0 re­sult against Ch­agua­nas North Sec­ondary and this per­haps sets the stage for what can be a mouth-wa­ter­ing goal feast.

Coach Jer­ry Moe and his San Juan North squad will al­so face a tough away out­ing against Ari­ma North which has al­ready shown that they can mix it up with the big boys by hold­ing Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege to a 0-0 draw, crush­ing St Mary’s Col­lege 8-1, and draw­ing 1-1 with St Bene­dict’s in their four re­sults to date.

In to­day’s oth­er match­es, Ch­agua­nas North hosts St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege at Ed­in­burgh 500 Recre­ation Ground, Ch­agua­nas; Pleas­antville Sec­ondary wel­comes Trin­i­ty Col­lege East to the Yoland Pom­pey Recre­ation Ground at Na­pari­ma, Ma­yaro Road; QRC en­ter­tains Bish­op’s High at St Clair; Spey­side is at home to Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege at Spey­side Recre­ation Ground, and St Mary’s Col­lege and East Mu­cu­rapo clash at Ser­pen­tine Road, St Clair.

Wednes­day's match­es:

Ch­agua­nas North vs St An­tho­ny's Col­lege, Ed­in­burgh 500 Rec. Grd, 4 pm

Fa­ti­ma Col­lege vs St Bene­dict's Col­lege, Fa­ti­ma Col­lege Grd, Mu­cu­rapo, 4 pm

Ari­ma North Sec vs San Juan North Sec, Ari­ma Mu­nic­i­pal Sta­di­um, Ari­ma, 4 pm

Na­pari­ma Col­lege vs Mal­ick Sec, Lewis Street, San F'do, 4 pm

Pleas­antville Sec vs Trin­i­ty Col­lege East, Yolande Pom­pey Rec, 4 pm

QRC vs Bish­op's High, QRC Ground, St Clair, 3.30 pm

Spey­side Sec vs Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, Spey­side Rec. Grd, 3.30 pm

St Mary's Col­lege vs East Mu­cu­rapo Sec, St Mary's Grd, Ser­pen­tine Rd, St Clair, 4 pm

Stand­ings

Po­si­tion Team P W D L F A Pts

1 Na­pari­ma Col­lege 4 4 0 0 29 2 12

2 Fa­ti­ma Col­lege 4 4 0 0 18 0 12

3 San Juan North 4 4 0 0 13 4 12

4 Pre­sen­ta­tion 4 2 1 1 4 2 7

5 Mal­ick 4 2 0 2 14 4 6

6 Ari­ma North 4 1 3 0 10 2 6

7 Spey­side Sec 4 2 0 2 6 5 6

8 QRC 4 2 0 2 4 5 6

9 St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege 4 2 0 2 5 9 6

10 East Mu­cu­rapo 4 2 0 2 3 13 6

11 St Bene­dict’s Col­lege 4 1 1 2 7 6 4

12 St Mary’s Col­lege 4 1 0 3 11 14 3

13 Ch­agua­nas North 4 1 0 3 1 23 3

14 Trin­i­ty East 3 0 1 2 2 4 1

15 Bish­op’s High 3 0 0 3 1 7 0

16 Pleas­antville 4 0 0 4 0 27 0

SS­FL Boys' Pre­mier Di­vi­sion top scor­ers:

6 - Kanye Fran­cis (Na­pari­ma).

5 - Nathan Quahie (San Juan North).

4 - Michael Chaves, Aidan De Gannes (Fa­ti­ma), Kyle Phillip, Ryan Radel­lant (St Mary’s), Akiel Vesprey (Na­pari­ma)

3 - Tyrell Sta­ple­ton (Ari­ma North), Oba Samuel (Mal­ick), N’kosi Quah­sie (Spey­side), Ja­heem Dan­clair, Lin­dell Sween (San Juan North), Jonathan Ma­son (Fa­ti­ma)

2 - Justin Al­can­tar, Chris­t­ian Bai­ley (Fa­ti­ma), Ronald­in­ho Richards, J’Lon Matthews, Jor­dan Fer­di­nand (Mal­ick), Kevin Fran­cois, Jaron Pas­call, Jabari Forbes, Tevin Pan­tor, Xar­i­on France, Nathaniel O'Gar­ro (Na­pari­ma), Eli­jah Wong (St Mary’s), Clint Latch­man (East Mu­cu­rapo), Dar­i­on Mar­fan (Ari­ma North), Jaden Grant, Daniel Jones (St Bene­dict’s), Mic­ah Nel­son (QRC), Je­maul Ash­ing (Ari­ma North), An­dell Fras­er (St An­tho­ny's), Vaughn Clement (Pre­sen­ta­tion) .

1 - Nekayse Moore (Ch­agua­nas North), Adah Bar­clay (Pre­sen­ta­tion), Stephon James, Tau Lam­see (QRC), Malachi Webb, Der­rel Gar­cia, Ethan Trot­man (St Ben­dict’s), Thomas De­cle, Kade Col­lier, Jaden Williams (Fa­ti­ma), Malachi Wood­ley, Ac­k­eem James, Isa­iah David, Ke­ston Richards, Zachary Joseph (Mal­ick), Tyrel Ra­joon, Aaron Ray­mond, Is­rael Joseph, Josi­ah Coop­er, J’kown Bai­ley (Na­pari­ma), Daniel Rose, Oba­di­ah Eye­ad­el­rosiy­hia, Theo Cravador (St An­tho­ny’s), Omar Daniel, Shy­on George (Spey­side), Theron O’Brien, Abil­i­ty Hazel, Tony Figuera (Ari­ma North), Ale­jan­dro Harp­er (St Mary’s), Jadiel Joseph, Joshua Lewis (San Juan North), Kadeem Plaza, Khaleem Prince (Trin­i­ty East), Damario Hen­ry (Bish­op’s High), Je­mon Gul­ston (East Mu­cu­rapo).

Own goal: 5