St.Henry’s, Zahira, St.Patrick’s & Holy Cross tops the four groups

Group A

Group A featured the 2015 champions St.Henry’s College alongside one of football power-houses Hameed Al Husseinie College while Royal College, Trinity College, Rahula College, Ananda College and Maliyadeva Boys College made up the rest.

The defending champs lived up to their name as they strolled through the group scoring 30 and only letting in 3 goals, threatened only by Hameed Al Husseinie yet winning by a 3-1 margin.

Hameed Al Husseinie, who are the 2015 All Island Division I runners-up and 2016 National School Games champions, too had a comfortable ride in the group stage apart from the tough clash against Royal where they scrapped through 2-1 and were awarded two walkovers against Rahula College and Maliyadeva College.

Royal, Trinity and Rahula were locked on 8 points but the better goal difference earned Royal the 3rd place.

Key Matches

Hameed Al Husseinie College 1 – 3 St.Henry’s College
St.Henry’s College 2 – 0 Trinity College
Royal College 1 – 2 Hameed Al Husseinie College
St.Henry’s College 3 – 0 Royal College
Trinity College 1 – 1 Royal College

Group B

Champions of the inaugural edition in 2014, Zahira College much like St.Henry’s yawned their way to the quarter finals scoring 39 goals and only conceding 4. Their lowest winning margin was 4-0 against Wesley College while against Sr Pada College they got a walkover.

St.Joseph Vaz College from Wennappuwa filled the second place in the group, edging out S.Thomas’ College 2-0 and surviving 3-2 scare against Dharmaraja College up at the Bogambara Stadium.

Last year’s quarter finalists S.Thomas’ College, who didn’t play, minus four key players from last year had to be satisfied with the third place after drawing against Dharmaraja, a totally different score to the 6-1 demolition they inflicted the Rajans last year, and the loss against St.Joseph Vaz.

Key Matches

Zahira College 9 – 3 St.Joseph Vaz College
St.Joseph Vaz College 2 – 0 S.Thomas’ College
S.Thomas College 1 – 1 Dharmaraja College
Dharmaraja College 2 – 3 St.Joseph Vaz College
S.Thomas’ College 1 – 0 Wesley College

Group C

Group C was the ‘Group of Death’ which featured 5 football strongholds in Holy Cross College, Kalutara, De Mazenod College, St.Joseph’s College, St.Mary’s College and St. Benedict’s College.

Holy Cross was 3rd place winners from last year while St.Mary’s College was runners-up to Zahira College in the 2014 All Island Division I Championship.

Holy Cross came into the tournament without three star players who had switched schools to St.Joseph’s College but against all odds managed to win the group with the only loss coming against De Mazenod away from home.

In a bitter affair they narrowly defeated St.Joseph’s 1-0 in a match riddled with emotions; emphasized by the Holy Cross fans who made their way from Kalutara to the Rathmalana Railway grounds.

De Mazenod College had a slow start to the tournament with only one win from their first three matches. However they recovered remarkably well to win the final three, must win matches, with a similar score line of 2-1 at home; which included the final group match against Holy Cross as they pipped St.Joseph’s into 2nd place by 1 point.

Unlike De Mazenod, St.Joseph’s got off to a flyer winning the opening four matches, but could not sustain the momentum and eventually lost the last two to finish a disappointing 3rd even with a better defensive record while St.Mary’s finished 4th with 10 points; the four places was divided by just 5 points.

Key Matches

St.Joseph’s College 2 – 1 St.Mary’s College
De Mazenod College 2 – 1 St.Joseph’s College
Holy Cross College 1 – 0 St.Joseph’s College
St.Mary’s College 2 – 0 (W/O) De Mazenod College
De Mazenod College 2 – 1 Holy Cross College

Group D

Group D too looked like another ‘Group of Death’ on paper with 2014 runners-up St.Peter’s College, 2015 4th place winners St.Sebastian’s College, 2014 semi-finalists, 2015 quarter finalists and 2015 All Island Division I Champions Maris Stella College alongside the unknown commodity in new comers St.Patrick’s College from Jaffna.

However St.Patrick’s College blew the competition apart scoring 32 goals and conceding 3 on their way to 18 points; which included 6-1, 3-1 wins against St.Peter’s and Maris Stella.

The other sides had to scrap for 2nd place and at the end it needed goal difference to determine the 2nd place, which went to Maris Stella College who had a +18 to St.Peter’s +11.

Key Matches

St.Peter’s College 1 – 6 St.Patrick’s College
St.Patrick’s College 3 – 1 Maris Stella College
Maris Stella College 2 – 2 St.Peter’s College
St.Sebatian’s College 0 – 1 St.Patrick’s College
St.Peter’s College 3 – 2 St.Sebatian’s College