Dagoretti High School will be playing their second consecutive school games semi-final. PHOTO/Timothy Olobulu
KISUMU, Kenya, Aug 1 – Three teams which reached last year’s semi-finals of the Kenya National Secondary School Games last year have achieved the feat once again after the completion of the group stage matches in Kakamega on Thursday.
Dagoretti and St. Anthony’s finished top of Group A and B respectively and will be joined by last year’s losing finalists Olbolosat. The only outside in the top four is Vihiga County’s Ebwali who make it to the last four in their debut.
Ebwali lost 3-0 to a clinical Dagoretti High School with the latter finishing top of the group with a 100pc record while St. Anthony beat Olbolosat 1-0 via an Issa Lumumba first half goal to finish top of Group B with the latter finishing second.
Dagoretti who are playing in their second consecutive national championship have now vowed to go one better and go to the final with their eyes fixed in clinching the national trophy.
-Orero confident
“I think this year we have a better team with more experience. Last year was our first time at this stage and there was some kind of stage fright with the players but now, we come in with more belief. We face Olbolosat again and we played them in the group stages last year and drew 1-1,”
“That time, we took them easy because we didn’t know them but now we do. We will take that match very seriously,” Dagoretti principal Peter Orero told Capital Sport.
Dagoretti showed intent from the onset and broke the deadlock barely two minutes into the game through Alfred Otieno.
Zablon Kutela then made it 2-0 in the 32nd minute when he broke the offside trap to run behind the defense and tap simply into the net after the Ebwali players struggled to clear a cross from the right.
In the second half, Dagoretti copy-pasted the same script from the first half and scored just two minutes after the restart with Marko Deng swinging a sweet volley unmarked after picking ip a cross from Otieno.
-Failed response
Ebwali tried to make a response in the 52nd minute but Kelvin Owalla’s effort with a freekick from the right came against the side netting. The lanky midfielder had another effort from range, but it encountered a trailing leg of a Dagoretti player, taking the sting off the shot and making it easy for the keeper.
Ebwali were reduced to 10 men with five minutes left after Barnaba Achote was shown a second yellow card for a rush tackle.
