At the end of a superb competition, held at Guernsey’s Haute Capelles School, Victoria and Guernsey champions La Mare de Carteret finished locked at 1-1 at the completion of normal time in an enthralling contest.Golden goal extra-time could not separate the sides and the reward of being the CI representatives in the South-west region finals came down to spot kicks.With La Mare de Carteret having missed two of their first four attempts, Sam Dawkins, who had given Victoria the lead in normal time before Matthew Renouf equalised, took the opportunity to claim glory for his side.Jerry Curtis, coach of the Victoria side, joked that La Mare de Carteret could still get the chance to represent the CI.
Curtis said: ‘I will have to wait and see whether my wife allows me to take the team away for the weekend for the regional finals – La Mare still might get to go.
But I was very pleased with how the boys played.
They are a good team, there are no great individual stars but they have talent and they gel so well.’With two so closely-matched teams which looked to play good football, it was an appropriate final but every school participating showed a great deal of potential and not one of them went through the group stage without picking up a point.But arguably the most impressive side, Jersey’s St Saviour, had to settle for third place despite coming through Group A with three wins from three.
La Mare beat them 1-0 in a semi-final.St Saviour also had probably the best player on show in Harrison Jukes, who hit the goal of the day with a long-range rocket of a shot that flew into the roof of the net in the opening game against La Moye.But such was the competitiveness of this excellent tournament that St Saviour stumbled at the penultimate hurdle and it wasn’t a huge shock.
It is a big cliché, but football was the winner on the day.Victoria Prep were represented by: Ben Rose, Harry Langdon, Sam Dawkins, Thomas Le Lièvre, William Southall and Alex Noel.Group placings, Group A: 1, St Saviour; 2, Haute Capelles; 3, St Martin’s; 4, La Moye.
Group aCarteret; 3, St Peter’s; 4, Vale.
Semi-finals: St Saviour 0, La Mare de Carteret 1; Victoria Prep 1, Haute Capelles 0 (golden goal).Play-offs, 7th/8th: Vale 0, La Moye 2.
5th/6th: St Martin’s 0, St Peter’s 0 (shared).
3rd/4th: Haute Capelles 1, St Saviour 2.
Final: La Mare de Carteret 1, Victoria Prep 1 (after extra time, Victoria won 4-2 on penalties).
