By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IT will be a rematch of last year’s two finalists for the senior girls and a renewal of the showdown two years ago for the boys crown when the sixth annual Samuel P Haven National High School Championships is completed today.

The Bahamas Football Association’s championships and the consolation third place matches will take place at the Roscoe AL Davies Developmental Centre at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex, starting at 4pm.

The girls’ consolation match will be played between the CR Walker Knights and the Bishop Michael Eldon Warriors from Grand Bahama and the boys’ match-up will be between the Windsor School and the St George’s Jaguars from Grand Bahama.

They will be followed by the big dance with the Lyford Cay Lady Dragons defending their senior girls title against runners-up Queen’s College Comets and the Dragons will renew an old rivalry with the Government High Magics in the nightcap.

Here’s how the drama all unfolded in the semifinals:

Comets out-kick Jaguars 4-3 in penalty shootout: With both teams ending the game in a scoreless draw, it came down to who could score the most in the penalty shootout.

Amara Downs got the clincher in the end for Queen’s College as they celebrated their return to the finals.

Head coach Dion Peterson said his Comets were waiting for this opportunity to play and they made it back. He noted that he was proud of his players.

“We’ve played them a few times this season, so we know they are a tough team,” he said as he looked ahead to the final. “We just have to come out and play.”

Dragons roared past Knights 2-1: Storm Darville booted in the game winning goal in the 52nd minute to stamp Lyford Cay’s approval on their return trip to the final.

The game was closely contested in the first half with Issa Bournas striking first for Lyford Cay in just the first three minutes of the game. But CR Walker made it close as Vltibnique Simmons got the equaliser just before the half in the 29th minute. 

Co-head coach Annisa Albury said after their Lady Dragons came out and stuck to their game plan, they knew they were taking on a tough contender in the Lady JKnights, whom they faced in the same draw last year.

“We came out to work hard. Our girls have been working hard all year. We are the defending champions swo we feel we have. chip on our shoulders to prove ourselves again,” she said.

“After they scored the equaliser, our girls found another gear. Someone came in and scored another goal and our goalkeeper was phenomenal at the end to keep us in and we’re just super proud of our girls. We’re on to the final again.”

Against Queen’s College, Albury said they faced them twice this season in the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools and they will be ready.

Dragons 3, Windsor School 1: In avenging their loss in the semifinals of the BAISS playoffs, Lyford Cay played exceptionally well as they rode the goal scoring from Jack Massey in the 8th minute, Joshua O’Brien in the 32nd and Luke Silva in the 37th.

Ronaldo Green, the head coach for Lyford Cay, said it was a fantastic win.

“The boys worked hard during the game and we got the win,” he said. “We came today prepared for them.”

And although they haven’t seen Government High play this year, Green said he feels they have “all the tools” to be able to continue their momentum to hoist the championship trophy today.

Magicmen 3, Jaguars 2: Rolph Gervais got Government High on the scoreboard first in the 26th minute and they added goals from Frednel Felix in the 45th and John Brize in the 59th.

But Clerdjivensky Clerjus kept St George’s in the game with their first goal at the 34th for the first equaliser. Then after trailing 3-1, Mider Dalmasse gave them a last hope when he cut it to 3-2 on his shot in the 66th minute.

However, they ran out of time as the Magic completed their trick to get into the final, dropping the Jaguars into the consolation game as they will try to at least take some hardware to Grand Bahama.

Melvin Miller, GHS’ head coach, said they tried to execute their gmev plan from the first half, but they had a tough time ginst St George’s and so it wasn’t until the second half that they got the Magic to work.

“There were some goals that we missed,” he insisted. “Obviously we will go over them before we play the championship game against Lyford Cay.

“But kudos to St George’s. They played well, but this was our game to win and we won it. They had their comeback moments and made the game more competitive. But it fueled the fire of the Government High Magic.”

After letting the title slip away from them when they faced the Dragons two years ago, Miller said his Magicmen are back and this time, they won’t let history repeat itself.

Despite the loss, Symone Stubbs said her Jaguars will try to brush off their performance yesterday and regroup to play for the consolation prize.

“For us, we didn’t dpt. We didn’t execute the game plan,” she said. “We caught ourselves in the last 15 minutes of the second half, but we didn’t execute well.

“Now the tough part is rallying the guys to compete in. Even the things we discussed, I told the guys that I was proud of how we fought back. But we should not have been in that position. We didn’t execute when we should have.”