Sub­sti­tute Math­yyas Charles scored two goals in sev­en min­utes on his way to pick­ing up the 'Man-of-the-Match' award as San Juan North Sec­ondary blanked long-time ri­vals St Au­gus­tine Sec­ondary 5-0 in their East Zone Co­ca-Co­la Boys Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League semi­fi­nal at the Ari­ma Mu­nic­i­pal Sta­di­um, Ari­ma on Wednes­day.

Play­ing in the first match of a zon­al dou­ble­head­er, San Juan North got goals from Jahdel Chase-Charles and Nathan Quashie to lead 2-0 at the half-time in­ter­val be­fore Lin­dell Sween, and the brace from Charles, capped off a dom­i­nant per­for­mance from the Jer­ry Moe-coached San Juan North to book their spot in Tues­day's fi­nal.

Chase-Charles opened the scor­ing in the ninth minute when his tame ef­fort on tar­get from some dis­tance man­aged to slip un­der the body of St Au­gus­tine goal­keep­er Madi­son Lewis.

San Juan North then had to wait a fur­ther 25 min­utes be­fore Quashie un­leashed an un­stop­pable blast from 25 yards, which whisked past the des­per­ate dive of Lewis.

On the re­sump­tion, na­tion­al youth team play­er Sween threat­ened with a vol­ley from on the top of the 18-yard box in the 62nd which was tipped over bar by Lewis, but four min­utes lat­er he would fi­nal­ly get his goal when a left-foot­ed shot de­flect­ed off St Au­gus­tine's Tyrese An­drews and left Lewis strand­ed be­fore nestling in the left side of the goal.

Charles (M), then took over with his brace, first scor­ing from a loop­ing head­er af­ter he out­jumped two St Au­gus­tine de­fend­ers in the 70th minute, and then ri­fling home from an acute an­gle on the right side of the 18-yard box off a pass from the alert Sween.

Af­ter a cagey first half, Trin­i­ty Col­lege East had the best chance to take the lead in the 61st minute when a right-foot­ed ef­fort from Khaleem Prince beat the dive of goal­keep­er Isa­iah Di­az, but un­luck­i­ly for the vis­i­tors the ball ric­o­cheted in­to play to let Ari­ma North off the hook.

And against the run of play in a heavy driz­zle of rain, Ari­ma North took the lead sev­en min­utes lat­er when a well-flight­ed cor­ner from Mark Thomas to the far post was head­ed back to­wards the cen­tre of the 18-yard-box by Ari­ma North's Dar­ren De Four.

De Four's at­tempt­ed a vol­ley which was mis­cued in­to the path of Tyrell Sta­ple­ton who was alert to the play and man­aged to beat Trin­i­ty East goal­keep­er Alex­is Am­brose to the loose ball be­fore ham­mer­ing the bounc­ing ball in­to the roof of the net for the 1-0 lead.

Ten min­utes lat­er, Ari­ma North all but put the game to rest through sub­sti­tute Tyler Ay­ers who un­leashed a long-ranged right-foot­ed grounder from a failed Trin­i­ty East clear­ance off a cor­ner by Stephano Christo­pher, which took a wicked de­flect­ed and wrong-foot­ed goal­keep­er to make it 2-0.

And four min­utes from full-time a right-sided free-kick from 15-year-old Stephen Ol­livierie was com­plete­ly over­run by goal­keep­er Am­brose to gift the host the third item.

To­day, the fo­cus will shift to the North Zone where reign­ing SS­FL Pre­mier Di­vi­sion cham­pi­ons and In­ter-Col ti­tle-hold­ers Fa­ti­ma Col­lege will put their zon­al and na­tion­al ti­tles on the line against Queen's Roy­al Col­lege in the first semi­fi­nal at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo, from 3 pm.

Fa­ti­ma will go in­to the match as heavy favourites hav­ing won their lone meet­ing in the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion 7-1 while the Mu­cu­rapo Road-based school coached by for­mer na­tion­al mid­field­er and coach Hut­son Charles ham­mered Trin­i­ty Col­lege of Mo­ka 5-0 in their quar­ter­fi­nal at St Mary's Col­lege Ground, Ser­pen­tine Road in St Clair on Fri­day last.

In the sec­ond semi­fi­nal at Mu­cu­rapo, a much more even con­test is ex­pect­ed when St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege and East Mu­cu­rapo Sec­ondary coached by friends, Ronald 'Hus­tler' Daniel and Dale Saun­ders do bat­tle from 5.15 pm

The West­moor­ing Tigers and East Mu­cu­rapo Sec­ondary have both cap­tured the zon­al and na­tion­al In­ter-Col crowns mul­ti­ple times and will both be ea­ger to stay in con­tention for more sil­ver­ware.

When the two teams met in the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion, St An­tho­ny's won 2-0 away from home and crushed Blachisseusse Sec­ondary 7-2 in their quar­ter­fi­nal while East Mu­cu­rapo up­staged St Mary's Col­lege 4-3 on penal­ty kicks af­ter a goal­less draw.

Wednes­day's In­ter-Col semi­fi­nals

East Zone:

San Juan North 5 (Math­yyas Charles 70th, 77th, Jahdel Chase-Charles 9th, Nathan Quashie 34th, Lin­dell Sween 66th) v St Au­gus­tine Sec 0

Ari­ma North Sec 3 (Tyrell Sta­ple­ton 68th, Tyler Ayres 78th, Stephen Ol­livierie 86th) v Trin­i­ty Col­lege East 0

Up­com­ing match­es

Thurs­day

North Zone:

Fa­ti­ma Col­lege v QRC, Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo, 3 pm

St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege v East Mu­cu­rapo Sec, Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, 5.15 pm

Fri­day

South Zone:

St Bene­dict’s Col­lege v Pleas­antville Sec­ondary, Ma­haica Sport­ing Com­plex, 3 pm

Pre­sen­ta­tion (San F’do) v Na­pari­ma Col­lege, Ma­haica Sport­ing Com­plex, 5.15 pm.