Playing on their home field Sunday, Soufriere emerged champions of the National Under-19 Football tournament but it was not easy. They got all they could handle from but a determined Central Castries team who in the end lost on penalty kicks.

The boys from Sulphur City who were cheered on by their home town fans and they responded in the 41st minute. That’s when Captain Eric Francois made good on a penalty giving Soufriere a 1-0 lead which they enjoyed for most of the game.

With the game well into the second half, it seemed Soufriere had the game when Central Castries was a man short when their key defensive player picked up his second yellow card. Down to 10 men and leading 1-0 Soufriere were in a rather enviable position. However give Central Castries a lot of credit, instead of throwing in the towel they picked up their game and went all for the equalizer.

Their attacking style of play paid off in the 78th minute, when Valdez Maimim found the back of the net which silenced the Soufriere crowd. From then on both teams played a wide open style looking to score the winning goal. With just a few minutes left in the game, Central Castries silenced the crowd once again with what appeared to be the game winner. However, the assistant had his flag up and following a consultation with the referee the goal was disallowed because of an offside infraction.

With the score tied 1-1 after regulation time, penalty kicks determined the winner with Soufriere emerging victorious 4-1.

In an earlier game for the third place playoff, Gros Islet defeated Canaries 4-2. Troy Greenidge led the winning side with three goals with Eden Charles getting the other marker. Terbius Stephen from the penalty spot and David Henry scored for Canaries.

In an interview following the game, Assistant Coach of the Soufriere team, Bertrand Henry, felt his team made things tougher on themselves by being complacent after scoring the opening goal.

“Central Castries were one down and we were expecting to seal the game, but the guys were too relaxed and we ended up just giving them a goal,” said Henry.

Manager of the Central Castries team, Vilan Edward, said his team had a few kinks here and there and really started out slow. He felt losing their key defender to two yellow cards shook the team up “but they came out with a lot of attacking plays.”

He said the team squandered at least seven scoring opportunities in the first half alone and had they capitalized the outcome would have been different.

There is speculation that Edward who is a Manager/ Accountant at The Voice newspaper and a goalkeeper, is hanging up the boots in the very near future to concentrate on his managerial position with the team.

Inquiring minds want to know, but Edwards who was caught off guard when asked about it replied: “I leave that to be seen, you guys write the news and I won’t say anything about it right now.”

Following the final there was a brief prize giving ceremony. Trophies and medals were presented along with the award for Most Valuable Player in the Final. The recipient was Valdez Maximim of Central Castries.