In the ongoing Airtel Rising Stars National Secondary Schools Term Two B Games, the battle for the soccer semifinal spot has intensified for pool B heavyweights St Anthony’s Boys High School and Upper Hill after playing to a one all draw in a repeat of 2012 finals where the former emerged victorious.
Celebrations for having secured the coveted spot were put on hold as the two teams are now tied first on four points having registered wins on the first day matches.
In a tightly contested match, the East Africa 2002 champions who are making a return after serving a ban served in 2015, St Anthony’s drew first blood in the first minutes of the match with a beauty of a free-kick in the fifth minute from skipper Phillip Mayaka, finding the back of the rival’s net much to the cheering of the fans.
Upper Hill in return embarked on a series of attacks and 20 minutes later, it was their turn to celebrate after lanky forward Washington Odoyo found a loose ball in the penalty box netting an equalizer for the 2013 Champions Upper Hill.
In the other matches Kakamega high qualified for the semis after beating Kanga from Nyanza 4-1
Elsewhere, Kenya Secondary School games 2015 finalist Kobala mixed are through to the semi-finals in the same ARS games, girls’ category, after picking up a 1-0 second win for a points tally of six on the second day of the matches.
After playing to a 2-1 win against Easterns’ Utithi on the first day, Kobala headed to the match against Nairobi’s Olympic Girls a confident team but met an equally prepared side.
In a scintillating match that barely had ugly incidences, the two sides fired shots with intent in equal measure with neither side being on target as they headed to the break.
On resumption, Olympic broke Kobala’s defence on several occasions but poor finishing saw them waste crucial chances that would have fired the side to the lead.
Kobala, however, kept their back line intact and chose to use counter attacks, a move that paid as the match was heading for a barren draw but for a well taken shot by Yvonne Akinyi that found the back of Olympic’s net in the 85th minutes.
There was little the Nairobi side could do to salvage the situation and are now placed third on the pool B log with a single point from their first day’s 2-2 draw with Jabini.