The victorious Cedar "A" team, along with Coach Lettsom Jackson, lifted theBVIRU Inter Primary Championship with a 3-0 win over FLPS. Photo: Charlie Jackson/VINO

Frankie Kalama showed his power, scoring the opening "try", to put his team on the way to victory. Photo: Charlie Jackson/VINO

Faith Amory played with speed and skill throughout the Tournament and was rewarded with a score in the final. Photo: Charlie Jackson/VINO

The first half was a tight tense affair with both teams probing for openings and both defenses holding their lines to restrict goal scoring opportunities.

The warning signs for FLPS came midway through the half when both Frankie Kalama and Kendall Davis had scores disallowed after they had been “tagged”. The East End outfit battled back with surging runs from Rudolfo Pickering and Terique Bradshaw.

The second half began with much the same see saw action until a surge forward by Davis was stopped close to the score line by Makimbo Fahie. From the next play, Kalama stormed over the line to score.

The coup de grace was delivered a few minutes later when, with scores from the girls counting double, Faith Amory rounded out a cross field move with a neat side step and sprint to the line to make it 3-0.

Despite continued attempts by FLPS to get back into the game, the Cedar line held firm and they were able to lift the Championship for a 3^rd consecutive time

“To see the kids play that hard time and time again, doing what we called them to do, listening to the captains and playing the game right that’s a great feeling and then to see them celebrating the victory is brilliant,” commented Coach Lettsom Jackson

“It felt good to score the winning try,” said Kalama. “We defended really well, adjusted to their play and overall it was pretty good.”

In the semi-finals, Cedar “A” crushed Isabella Morris 8-2 on the back of a 4 scores each from Davis and Amory. Maliki John scored both for IMPS. Francis Lettsome also had a comfortable victory, 5-0 over Ebenezer Thomas with scores coming from Bradshaw (2), Pickering (2) and Fahie.

“I was a bit worried at the beginning when some of the teams were late due to transportation issues,” said BVIRU Development Officer Sam Solomon. “However, we’ve seen some great rugby from all the teams and the final was very competitive. Both teams were in the 3^rd final and both showed great skill.”

The other participating schools were Cedar “B”, who lost 6-2 to the “A” team before beating Ebenezer Thomas 3-0 with goals from Justine Bryson and Davis. Leonora Davis Primary lost 5-0 to Enis Adams Primary and then 5-1 to FLPS, with T’Quan Stoutt recording their sole score. Ebenezer Thomas opened their campaign with a 5-1 drubbing of Isabella Morris with K’Ntenay Maduro, Dejante George, Shan Morris and Zoran Penn (2) scoring. John hit the only response for IMPS.

Going forward, Solomon said that the BVIRU wil be utilizing the likes of the National Team Players to go into the schools to better prepare the students for these sort of tournaments and to assist him with the development work.

Coming up next week is the High School Championship, which by all accounts, won’t be for the faint hearted as teams battle for the right to be named Champions.