Chase Academy to defend Milo title against MLC

By Treiston Joseph 

Chase Academy and Morgan Learning Centre (MLC) will play in the final of the 2017 edition of the Milo Under-18 School Football tournament after the semi-final round of the tournament on Wednesday evening at the Ministry of Education ground.

Chase Academy will have a chance to do something unprecedented and that is claiming the first three-peat in Milo football history. After a long journey, the defending champs made it back to the final for the third consecutive year by defeating Sir Leon Lessons 2-0.

It was a physical game for the champs and while the first half went scoreless, Chase dominated possession and that carried over to the second half. Job Caesar capitalised on a brilliant run down the right flank and slipped one past Sir Leon’s custodian to put Chase ahead in the 67^th minute.

Sir Leon wasted a few chances to equalise, but Caesar’s shot in the first minute of extra time was definitely the game sealer. Caesar spoke on his performance after the big win, noting that the success came because they played as a team while stressing that he is hoping to go out with a bang in his final year for the tournament.

Captain of Chase Academy, Jeremy Garrett, also spoke on the win and hailed Caesar’s performance as vital to getting to the final. “I want to say congrats to the team, we listened, stuck to our game plan and we came out victorious but I want to hail Caesar who has been one of our starlet this year and I know this is his final year so the guys are trying to win it,” Garrett stated.

Meanwhile, in the other semi-final match, Morgan Learning Centre got past Masters Academy 2-1 to advance to the final for the first time in the tournament.

The game was fairly even, but MLC took advantage of their opportunities the most, especially early on in the game with Daniel Floyd notching the first goal in the 18^th minute of the match. Just after the halftime break, Chris Macey doubled Morgan’s lead 2-0 in the 49^th minute.

While Masters missed a few chances and at one point thought they equalised, but the referee on duty disregarded the goal due to a handball, they ended with a goal in the 80^th minute from Mario Eastman. The final of the tournament will be held on Sunday afternoon with the third place playoff and final, commencing at 17:00h at the Ministry of Education ground.