Despite being on the back foot for most of the match, Raffles punished Meridian's wastefulness and scored with their only opportunity while VJC secured third placing
Raffles Institution’s Koo Hui Fen scored a dramatic last minute goal to lead her side to their first ever title, as they beat Meridian Junior College 1-0 to win the 2012 SSSC/FAS National Inter-School Girls Football Championship A Division at the Jalan Besar Stadium.
Despite dominating the match, Meridian rarely created any good goal-scoring chances and Raffles, who were on the back foot for large periods of the game, punished them with a late counter-attack, as Koo fired home with seconds left.
The match began in cagey fashion and both teams gave away possession cheaply and struggled to keep the ball.
But Meridian, who beat defending champions Victoria Junior College 2-0 in the semi-finals, began to dominate soon after, with captain Abigail Tan Teck Min and attacking midfielder Fatin Aqillah causing all sorts of problems for the Raffles backline.
However, they failed to convert their possession into goals with some poor passing and finishing.
The closest Meridian came in the first-half was in the 22nd minute, when Fatin whipped in a brilliant corner-kick but left-winger Angeline Tan Wei Ee just missed out on getting a touch to slide in and break the deadlock.
Meridian then made two changes at the start of the second-half, with Jemima Lee Xin Yi and Ola Elsaid coming on for T.Suganthi and Nur Fitri Chang Hui Mei.
They should have taken the lead in the 47th minute but with the goal at her mercy, Nur Fitri miskicked Fatin’s cut-back into the penalty box and the ball was cleared by the Raffles defence.
With Meridian wasting possession, Raffles scored with their first and only chance of the game late in added time.
It was a heartbreaker for Meridian as a lapse of concentration allowed Raffles forward Koo to charge into the box and comfortably stroke the ball home, in what was the last move of the game, to send her fans into delirium.
Earlier, in the 3rd and 4th placing match, Victoria Junior College and Millennia Institute played out an equally dramatic encounter which ended 3-3 after extra time.
Millennia opened the scoring in the 8th minute through Serena Bok and just two minutes later, they doubled their lead via a superbly converted penalty from captain Eunice Ong.
But Victoria scored two goals in three minutes to put the match back into contention. Captain Chris Yip scored from 20 yards out in the 26th minute and Samantha Tan secured the equaliser three minutes later.
Tan Yi Jun then got what appeared to be the winner for Victoria with her 41st minute strike but lady luck had other plans as Millennia Institute’s substitute Norellynawathi bte Hamidan scored with the last touch of the game to grab a dramatic equaliser.
With no goals in extra-time, the teams proceeded to the dreaded penalty shootout which Victoria won 4-2 to clinch 3rd placing.
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