The Peterites started off their campaign in the Kotmale Chox under 19 tournament first round match with a solitary goal from David Prakash just before the half time against their arch-rivals St Josephs College at the CR & FC grounds.
It was the Peterites who were threatening the goal continuously as they had over twenty shots on the Josephian goal.
Although it was just one goal to separate both teams it was evident the Petes controlled this one-sided game. Sadly the Josephians could not keep up with the formidable pace of the Peterites and the lack of some creativeness in the middle of the park. On the other hand the peterites were inspired by their playmaker Sunethraj Niresh who capped off a man of the match performance through the peterite midfield.
As the game was kicked off by the Josephians it took a couple of minutes for both teams to have a grip on the game as they were both feeling each others pulses in the opening few minutes. The Peterites were the first to have a shot on goal and brought out a good save from the opposite goalkeeper. It was to be a busy day for the Josephian goal keeper who had to make many saves in the game to keep his team alive throughout the game. A minute later the Josephians had their first chance through a mistake by the Bambalapitiya defender and the shot was scuffed by the Josephian forward and brought out an easy save by the Peterite goalkeeper. Sadly for the Joes it was to be one of two chances they had in the entire half of the game as the Peterites dominated the whole game and should easily had more goals on the scoreboard.
The peterites were unlucky not to score early as their forward Isuru Sampath did all the hard work by beating the last Josephian defender and also chipped over the on rushing opposition goal keeper but his shot hit the crossbar. The bambalapitiya lads were very quick in their counter attack but were missing chance after chance after having many promising moves. The Josehpian defence was always shaky as they gifted the ball many times to the peterites. For the peterites they were controlling the whole game but lacked badly in their finshing. Peterite forward Isuru Sampath was to be guilty for most of the missed chances for the peterites as he again was left free and only the goalkeeper to beat, scuffed his shot and missed the easiest chance of the game. Peterites kept threating the opposite goal through set pieces as well but rued many free headers. As they kept searching for a goal it finally came through a set piece of a corner, it was the final chance of the first half for the peterites and David Prakash scored through a free header and gave joy finally for the peterite supporters.
The Petes continued where they left off in the first half and started positively and should have deservedly gone ahead through the individual brilliance from Sunethraj Niresh who had a piledrive of a thirty meter shot just inches away from the opposing goal. A moment later the Petes hit the crossbar again from a corner and it ricocheted and fell in the hands of another player of the team but he missed a simple header by heading back to the Joes goalkeeper. On the other hand the Jsehpians needed to score and they scored through a free header on a corner just like the Peterites did, but the referee blew the whistle as the Joes goal scorer had fouled the Pete defender just a before he headed the ball to the goal. So the scores remained a goal to nil to the Peterites heading to the final 15 minutes. The Joes had one more chance but it was not enough to beat the Peterite goal keeper as the shot was hit straight at him. The bamba defense was strong and tidy in the back and gave less chances for the Josephian forwards.
It was again the Peterites dominating the final few minutes as they were looking for that all important second goal which would have been game, set and match and too much for the opposition to come back. Peterite forward Isuru Sampath should have doubled the opponents lead after he slide the ball through the legs of the on rushing Josephian goalkeeper but was brilliantly cleared by the Joes defender just before it crossed the line. With that the referee blew the final whistle for the Peterites to secure a comfortable win by a goal to nil. The Peterite playmaker Sunethraj Niresh was all over every Peterite move as he was the mastermind behind the Peterite victory by pulling the strings in the midfield for the winning side.
Goal Scorer = 45 + 1 minute by David Prakash
Yellow Cards :
St.Peters College = Rafam Ikram (3rd minute) and Diluka Peiris (37th Minute)
St.Josephs College = Lakshan Ishanka (60th minute)
