Saints go marching in - to claim title for second year
SCHOOLS FOOTBALL
THE fourth Newcastle Catholic Primary Schools’ Girls’ Five-a-Side Tournament was held this week.
Eight teams were split into two groups, the top two going through to the semi- finals.
In Group One, St Lawrence’s showed their intentions with a comfortable victory over St Charles, while St Alban’s A were beating St Cuthbert’s Kenton B 4-0.
St Charles bounced back well by beating St Alban’s A 4-1 and St Cuthbert’s B 3-0 to take second spot.
St Lawrence’s continued their rich vein of form, turning over St Alban’s A and St Cuthbert’s B to take top spot.
In Group Two, St Alban’s B defeated St Cuthbert’s A 2-0 and St Michael’s beat St Joseph’s 1-0.
St Alban’s B won their final two games comfortably against St Joseph’s and St Michael’s.
St Cuthbert’s A rallied to overcome St Michael’s 2-1 and St Joseph’s 4-0 to take second place.
The seventh/eight-place play-off proved a tight game, St Joseph’s beating St Cuthbert’s B 1-0 after extra time.
The fifth /sixth-place play-off went the way of St Michael’s with a 2-0 victory over St Alban’s A.
St Alban’s B and St Lawrence’s dominated the semi-finals and enjoyed comfortable victories over St Charles and St Cuthbert’s A respectively.
St Cuthbert’s A sealed third place with a 1-0 victory over St Charles after extra time.
The final proved a tense and close encounter. There was not much to separate the teams at the start but Scarlett Rae-Belshaw netted to put St Alban’s 1-0 up up just before half-time.
St Lawrence’s equalised in the second period when Billie Slasor latched on to a through ball and drilled home.
The game went into extra time, when Ruby Kirkbride managed to get free and blasted the ball into the top corner to give St Alban’s the honours for the second year in succession.