Statia wins dodgeball, Saba wins soccer in SSS school competition

Secondary school students from the three Dutch Windward Islands competed in the so-called SS S School Games in Saba over the weekend, with St. Eustatius emerging on top in dodgeball and Saba narrowly edging out
St.  Maarten in the soccer final.

Girls’ teams took the court at Princess Juliana Sports Field for the dodgeball com­petition on Saturday.

St. Eustatius took the first game against Saba, winning three sets to none (3-0) in the best-of-five match.

St. Maarten beat St. Eusta­tius 3-1 in the second match and beat Saba by the same 3-1 score in the third, set­ting up the final between St. Maarten and St. Eustatius. In the final, St Eustatius bounced back from its loss earlier that morning to beat St. Maarten 3-0. It was not smooth sailing for the girls from the Golden Rock, how­ever, coming back from be­hind in the first set with their last two players eliminating four from St. Maarten.

The boys’ team took the field at Johan Cruyff Court for Sunday’s soccer competi­tion.

St. Maarten beat St. Eusta­tius 10-2 in the first match, while the second match be­tween St. Maarten and Saba became a tale of two halves.

Saba raced away to a 4-0 lead by the end of the first half, only to see that lead evaporate by the last minutes of the second as it looked in­creasingly unlikely that the hosts would hold on. How­ever, Saba scored the go-ahead goal moments before the final whistle, making the match 5-4.

Saba beat St, Eustatius 7-0 in the third match, securing a place in the final against St. Maarten.

Both sides went toe-to-toe in the nail-biting final, with no team ever taking a lead greater than one goal,
St. Maarten opened the scoring, but Saba equalised shortly after that. The sides traded goals, but St. Maarten ended up having the 3-2 ad­vantage at half-time.

Saba tied the score early in the second half and followed that with a go-ahead goal.

It was now St. Maarten’s turn to chase the scoreboard. The team equalised twice af­ter that, but could not answer Saba’s sixth goal. With this, Saba secured its 6-5 victory.

The SSS School Games move to St. Maarten next, with athletics and track and field events, according to a social media post by the Saba Government’s Department of Public Health and Sports.

The Daily Herald.