Paul-Andre Walker, Staff Reporter
St. Andrew's Trizzan Evans (left) tumbles after being fouled by Clarendon's Sean Fagan during the inaugural all-island Under-15 football final at Tony Spaulding Sports Complex on Sunday. St. Andrew won 7-6 on penalties. - IAN ALLEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
ST. ANDREW became the inaugural champions of the Pepsi Under-15 Confederation play-off competition after clinching an exciting sudden death penalty shoot-out over Clarendon in the final at Tony Spaulding Sports Complex on Sunday.
Playing against a physically stronger and obviously well coached Clarendon team, St. Andrew had to play most of the time on the back-foot.
However, they held firm to land a telling 7-6 penalty shoot-out victory, that had the small crowd enthralled to its very conclusion.
GRUELLING
In truth though, St. Andrew created a number of chances when they countered and the game could have gone either way during its gruelling 100-minute span.
Both goalkeepers looked good throughout, but it was the heroics of Diego Haughton that made the difference when he struck a well placed penalty into the roof of the net to deny Clarendon, who had just missed their second sudden death penalty.
St. Andrew thought they would have won it earlier when Clarendon's Ricardo Webb hit his penalty high over the crossbar, but they had to watch in agony as national under-15 midfielder Ateba Morgan had his penalty turned unto the crossbar by Andre Blake.
In the end, football was the winner as the competition, while in need of more spectator support, announced itself as an avenue for the nurturing of young footballing talent within the island.
"This was a reflection of a very true final. It was unfortunate that the Clarendon team didn't walk away with it, they played well. But I think we did our bit and for that we are grateful. The youngsters deserve the exposure and I think football won at the end of the day," said winning coach Ludlow Bernard, who advocated the promotion of the competition for years to come.
Speaking about the game, Clarendon coach, Garfield Robinson voiced disappointment that his team had to lose the way they did.
"I thought we had some opportunities and so did St. Andrew. All in all it was a good game, it's just that it's a tough way for youngsters to lose," he said.
