Old Petes clinch victory in both U-40 and Veterans vs Old Bens
The Old Peterites Under-40 and Veterans teams beat both opposing teams of Old Benedictines with the identical margin of 2-0 in their annual football encounters played at St. Benedict’s College ground in Kotahena.
The Under-40 match was played for Milroy Perera Memorial Trophy, a former tutorial staff member of both schools, while the Veterans encounter was played for the St. Peter’s Old Boys Association Cup. In both matches Old Benedictines had to pay the penalty for missing many a scoring chances.
In the Under-40 clash played for the third time, Old Bens missed as many as six chances including a penalty awarded in the seventh minute of the match. They dominated the proceedings for most of the game but in the 54th minute a goal scored by Old Peterite midfielder Danajaya Sampath changed the whole course of the match.
Soon after Gayan Rivaldo, after receiving a through pass from the midfield, went solo to beat the advancing Old Bens custodian and made it 2-0 in favour of the Old Peterites. Thereafter Old Peterites tried their utmost to increase the lead but their attempts didn’t bear fruit. Old Bens made inroads to score, but they too failed and Old Peterites won the game by 2-0. With this Old Peterites won the Milroy Perera Memorial Trophy for third successive year.
In the Veterans match that preceded, Old Peterites beat Old Benedictines, also by 2-0. Former Saunders left extreme Isuru Udith Perera played a major role in Old Peterites’ victory as his two free kicks made the difference.
After the match was deadlocked at the breather, Perera scored from 25 yards out with a curved left foot free kick, which hit the right bottom of the net. Few minutes later another free kick by Perera saw the ball rebounding off the hands of Old Benedictine goalkeeper and Joshua Fernando rushed in quickly to tap it into the goal to give Old Peterites a 2-0 victory. In 2022 at Bambalapitiya, Old Bens Veterans
won on penalties.
Dhamodaran Chandrasiri, former St. Benedict’s College skipper, former national goalkeeper and the present coach of the Old Bens, was felicitated for his long dedicated service towards football for his alma mater.
In the Under-40 encounter Shehan Pathirana of Old Peterites and Jerome Fernando of Old Bens were named the best players, while Old Peterite Ishan Dhanush was named the player of the match. Joshua Fernando of Old Peterites was named the player of the match of the Veterans game, as Old Pete Isuru Udith Perera and Old Ben Trevin Ramanathan were named best players from each side.