Na­tion­al Co­ca-Co­la In­ter­col cham­pi­ons St Bene­dict’s Col­lege will be­gin the de­fence of their ti­tle Mon­day against Point Fortin East Sec­ondary School from 3.30 pm at Ma­haica Sport­ing Com­plex.

​It will be the first of four match­es in the South­land to­day, all of which will be played si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly. Among them, Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, one of the three teams bat­tling for the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion ti­tle, will face Siparia West at the Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um in Mara­bel­la, while Pre­mier Di­vi­sion leader Na­pari­ma Col­lege will clash with Rio Claro Sec­ondary at Lewis Street, San Fer­nan­do.

​In an­oth­er match, Pa­lo Seco Sec­ondary was sched­uled to face Pleas­antville Sec­ondary; how­ev­er, that match was post­poned to al­low Pa­lo Seco the op­por­tu­ni­ty to con­tin­ue its quest for Pre­mier­ship pro­mo­tion via the Big Five Cham­pi­onships Play-Offs.

​St Bene­dict’s, pop­u­lar­ly known as ‘The La Ro­main Li­ons’, will be ea­ger to re­ceive some much-need­ed warm-up against the Point Fortin lads, who fin­ished third in the South Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion be­hind win­ner Pa­lo Seco and sec­ond-place Pleas­antville Sec­ondary. In that tour­na­ment, the Point Fortin chaps played 10 match­es and won half of them for their 16 points. Their oth­er match­es end­ed in four loss­es and a draw.

​How­ev­er, the Point play­ers and their coach will be hop­ing to prove a point that foot­ball is played on the day, against ar­guably one of the best teams in the Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League (SS­FL) for many years. The La Ro­main Li­ons are sec­ond on the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion stand­ings, which fea­tures 16 teams, on 33 points. And even with­out their star play­er Der­rel "Zoom Zoom" Gar­cia, the 2024 "Play­er of the Year", who has opt­ed to play in the T&T Pre­mier Foot­ball League this sea­son, they have still been a tremen­dous force to be reck­oned with.

​Last year, St Bene­dict’s shut out Fa­ti­ma 2-0 in the fi­nal on De­cem­ber 5 to se­cure their third na­tion­al In­ter­col crown and there­by end­ed a 26-year ti­tle drought.

​Fa­ti­ma will al­so be in ac­tion to­day in the North, fac­ing East Mu­cu­rapo at the St Mary’s Col­lege Ground in St Clair, Port-of-Spain. Man­ag­er Stephen Williams said, al­though they did not get the re­sults they were hop­ing for in the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion, to­day will be their first step to­ward re­demp­tion at the In­ter­col lev­el.

​“We will not be tak­ing Mu­cu­rapo light­ly be­cause for us, it will be a Mu­cu­rapo Road der­by, and we want to beat up on our neigh­bours. It will be re­demp­tion for us. This year, Fa­ti­ma has been in a re­build­ing stage, and al­though we will not win the league, it was a good learn­ing curve for the boys. For the In­ter­col, how­ev­er, it starts here to­day against our neigh­bours, who we would not be tak­ing light­ly,” Williams said.

​Mean­while, Queen’s Roy­al Col­lege (QRC) and St Mary’s will clash in an­oth­er mouth-wa­ter­ing con­test at Fa­ti­ma Col­lege Ground.

​To­day’s match­es

​SOUTH ZONE

St Bene­dict’s vs Point Fortin East, Ma­haica Sport­ing Com­plex, 3.30 pm

Pre­sen­ta­tion vs Siparia West, Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um, 3.30 pm

Na­pari­ma vs Rio Claro, Lewis Street, San Fer­nan­do, 3.30 pm

​NORTH ZONE

Fa­ti­ma vs East Mu­cu­rapo, St Mary’s Col­lege Ground, 3.30 pm

QRC vs St Mary’s Col­lege, Fa­ti­ma Ground, 3.30 pm