It was a tale of different half at the Agege Stadium on Thursday evenings as Ijaiye Housing Estate Senior Grammar School, Ojokoro laboured to a 2-1 win over Elepe Community High School to emerge back to back champions of GTBank Lagos state Principal Cup season 9.
The encounter, which began amidst pomp and pegeantry saw Ijaiye drew the first blood 18th minutes into the match in a goalmouth melee as Odulabi Joseph latched on to a lose ball to give his team the lead.
The first half ended with both teams unable to find the net but credit to Elepe Community High School rearguards for doing a yeoman job to keep opposing attackers at bay.
Ijaiye Housing continued from where they left it as hostilities resumed in the second half to increase the tally to two through Ayomide McCatty in the 56th minutes.
Elepe consolation goal came via penalty in 60th minutes through Amzah Rokeeb as the encounter ended 2-1.Commeunity smiled to the bank with N1million naira cheque while Elepe were also rewarded with N750, 000.
In the female category, Isale Eko Senior Grammar school emerged champions after a nail bitting 4-1 win over Girls High School, Agege in a penalty shoot-out after both teams failed to break the deadlock in regulation time.
Isale Eko Senior Grammar School were rewarded with winners trophy and N1m cheque by GTB, while Girls High School also got N750,000 as runners up in the female category
Raheem Abeeb and Owolarepe Marian are the MVP of the tournament in the male and female category respectively.
Chairman of Lagos State Sports Commission, Dr Kweku Adedayo Tandoh thanked the sponsor, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc for its support and sponsorship of the school sports football tournament. He said the competition is a work in progress to bring back the glamour of Principal’s Cup as it used to be in past, adding that the annual organisation of the competition shows the focus of the government of Lagos State on sports development.