For the first time since their maiden victory 23 years ago, El Dorado East Secondary are the new Coca-Cola InterCol champions. The "Blue Thunder" duly avenged their 2007 National InterCol loss to Naparima College, defeating the south team 4-3 in the sudden death round of penalty kicks at the Mannie Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella.

The 'El Do' players approached the field with the intensity of a final battle while Naparima bounced all the way through their pre-game pep talk. Naparima took the lead with several attempts on goal from the outset, but were no match for El Dorado's Xavier Revanales who scored the first goal of the game in the 31st minute.

The Naparima boys seemed to have lost their focus after the El Dorado goal and missed several opportunities to get ahead throughout the game. Action on-field got more intense when the game was disrupted by an altercation between El Dorado's Keron Hernandez and Naparima's Steven Joseph. Hernandez was ordered off the field by the referee and Joseph received a yellow card, leaving the El Do team one man short.

The players pushed forward with the game and defended advances by Naparima star and National Under-17 striker, Shahdon Winchester, teaming up on him to regain possession. Winchester was finally able to slip past El Do's wall of defence and bring the game to a 1-1 draw in the second half.

In the resulting penalty battle both teams did well on their first kicks by El Dorado's Al-Muan Muhummad and Naparima's Dwayne Edwards. The Blue Thunder's star defender and National Under-20 player, Daniel Cyrus, failed on his turn - El Dorado's first miss.

'Naps' team captain Anthony Parris, and Winchester, were both successful with their strikes but that didn't lock the victory for their team. The final kick, by Naparima's Daquielle Matthews, flew far above the goal post securing the win for El Dorado.

The capacity crowd at the stadium erupted into cheers as both teams and their supporters ran onto the field to the music of their respective rhythm sections, bringing the curtain down on Intercol action for another year.

In an earlier game at the stadium, the BGTT National Girls InterCol finals came to a close with Debe High defeating Signal Hill Secondary 1-0. Striker Elizabeth Ng Wai scored the winning goal in the first half and the Tobago contenders were never able to recover.

Despite their two key players and National footballers, team captain Mariah Jade and Kayla Taylor, being down for the count, the girls retained their title following an undefeated season.

Jade recently suffered a hamstring injury playing for Trinidad and Tobago against Jamaica and Taylor was advised to rest. Their Tobago-bound contenders, Signal Hill Secondary, also recently lost their zonal title to Roxborough Secondary.

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