M.H.Yakeem
St.Joseph’s College, Colombo stickers pocketed the 3rd place at the under 20 All Island Schools Hockey tournament 2023, beating Vijaya College Matale by 3 goals to 2, in an exciting encounter, organized and conducted by the Ministry of Education, played at St. Peter’s College ground, Colombo-04 last Friday.
St.Joseph’s College, Colombo stickers beat Richmond College, Galle by 4 goals to 1 in the quarter-final and lost to Kingswood College, Kandy by 3 goals to nil in the semi-final, while Vijaya College, Matale beat Ananda College, Colombo on penalty strokes ( 4/2), after the game ended in a 1 all draw and lost to St.Thomas College, Matale by 1 goal to nil in the semi-final.
In the decider of the third place, Induwara Jayasinghe opened the scoring within a few minutes of the start of play to give Vijaya, Matale a 1-nil lead and followed to score his second goal to make it 2-nil. St. Joseph’s College, Colombo bounced back to the game with Bright Fernando scoring the goal and at the half time, Vijaya College, Matale was leading by 2 goals to 1. In the second half of the game, both teams showcasing their skills and talents, Bright Fernando scored his second goal for St.Joseph’s College to make it 2 all. Both teams played out their best and with few minutes left for the end of play, St.Joseph’s, Colombo went ahead with Abner Fernando scoring the goal to win this decider by 3 goals to 2 and pocket the 3rd place of the under 20 All Island Schools Games 2023. St. Joseph’s College is coached by Shane Ratnam an ex-Josephian, also the coach of the Sri-Lanka Junior Hockey team, and Kavindu Nayomal, assistant coach, who is assigned to the development and upliftment of St.Joseph’s College
23 Teams from 9 Provinces qualified to play in this tournament, out of the 23 teams, 17 teams took part. The teams are Kingswood College Kandy, St John’s College Jaffna, Sandalalankawa NS, St. Thomas College Matara, Dharmadutha College Badulla, Richmond College Galle, Parakramabahu NS Polgahawela, St. Joseph’s College Colombo, Joseph Vaz Wennappuwa, St. Thomas College Mount Lavinia, Uva College Badulla, St. Thomas College Matale, Vaddukodai College Jaffna, Vipulananda Central College Kalmunai, Vijaya College Matale, Ananda College Colombo, St. Aloysius College Galle.
Lahiru Weerasooriya, T.K. Heendeniya, I R.K. Wilwalaarachchi, S. Abeykoon, Abeetha Fernando, Ishan Kulatunga, Kusal Thilakasiri, D.J. Prakash, T.M.S.D. Aberathne, T.M.M D. Abeyrathne, was assigned to officiate at this tournament, while H.M.C.H. Bandara and A.H.M. Hanafi as Technical Officers.
St.Joseph’s College stickers comprise Keith Joshua, Bright Fernando, Abner Fernando, Adrian Fernando, Joel Sheron, Koshikan M. Pillai, Richi Victoria, Abishek Yogadeb, Tharindu Pradeeparajan, Imesh Perera, Mark Victoria, Dihen Samarasinghe, Isira Manawadu, Ravin Rathnayake, Udana Botheju, Jarad Rex, Thilukshan Selvakumar, Jerome Fernando
Caption
St. Joseph’s College, Colombo Hockey team.