Football: Youth Knockout final |01 December 2015

St John Bosco maintain unbeaten record with final win

Vijay Youth League champions St John Bosco Youth have managed to maintain their unbeaten run to clinch a second successive league and cup double after their victory over St Michel in the Vijay knockout final last week.

The final, which took place last Friday at the Astro-turf pitch, Roche Caïman, saw two rivals take on each other.

In the 12th minute, it was St Michel who stunned their opponents when Jean-Yves Lesperance broke free down the right flank to send in a cross to the far post. Johann Gamatis headed the ball across goal and Rey Pauline headed it goalwards only for goalkeeper Gerard Tirant to parry it. The rebound fell to Pauline who rifled a volley into the roof of the net.

It was from then on that St John Bosco started applying pressure on their opponents and after a few missed chances, they were gifted a goal through some poor defending by St Michel.

After two St Michel players collided into each other when going for a long ball, St John Bosco’s Perry Nourrice took advantage and knocked the ball past the advancing goalkeeper for the equaliser after 44 minutes of play.

The second half continued along the same vein, with St John Bosco playing the better football. In the 55th minute, they were lucky as after their winger received the ball in a clear offside position on the right he rushed into the penalty area and was subsequently brought down by the St Michel goalkeeper. Much to the frustration of the St Michel camp the referee awarded a penalty as his assistant did not flag for the offside.

Darius Gabriel stepped up to beat St Michel’s Joshua Vangadasamy to his left to give St John Bosco a 2-1 lead.

Things soon turned sour though as in the 60th minute, two opposing players started fighting after an off-the-ball incident. This sparked wild scenes as both teams’ benches and supporters rushed onto the pitch to take part in the brawl. The young officials who were without the supervision from senior officials could not restore peace and had to rush off the pitch.  After the players themselves had stopped the ugly scenes, the match was about to be called off as the officials claimed they were under threat, but after over a quarter of an hour later, the game resumed.

St John Bosco added a third goal before the end of the contest to clinch a 3-1 win and complete another league and cup double after another unbeaten season, meaning the boys of coach Roger Labonte are now unbeaten in two full seasons.

S. N.