After two successive defeats St. Mary’s College registered their first victory of the 2011 BG T&T Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) campaign in an emphatic fashion yesterday.

The Saints thrashed Malick Secondary 5-0 at St Mary’s home ground in front of a small crowd of supportive fans.

Dressed in their traditional white-and-blue stripes, the boys from St. Mary’s dominated the game.

St. Mary’s signalled their intent to win from very early in the game with their superior ball movement and penetration of their opponent’s defence.

They took the lead in the 11th minute with a strike from Jelani Christopher. This goal further buoyed the home team, and four minutes later, Christopher was able to capitalise on another spell of poor defence from Malick when he found the back of the net.

Two minutes later, Kyle Beggs put his name on the score sheet, and Malick was down by three.

Despite calls from their fans for them to raise their game, the players from Malick seemed unable to maintain possession of the ball long enough to mount an attack.

An infringement in the 38th minute resulted in a free kick for St. Mary’s a short distance away from the corner flag in Malick’s half. The free kick found the boot of Rashad Hyacinth and the ball made its way past Malick’s goalkeeper for the fourth time.

In the second half, the Malick team was able to increase its time of ball possession, but this did not translate into any sustained attack toward goal. Instead, in the 60th minute, Hyacinth became the second St. Mary’s player to score two goals in the match and was the lone goal scorer in the second half.

On hearing the final whistle, several players from Malick’s team shed tears of disappointment.

St Mary’s coach Jason Edwards told The Student Press after the game that his team’s victory was a critical one.

“This game was about taking pride in the way we play. We know we have been underperforming and we lost our last two games. The players knew that they needed to win this one in order to keep up with the better teams,” Edwards said.

“I noticed that a lot of supporters didn’t come out, so it was also about sending a message to our supporters.”