The Bermuda School Sports Federation will host its first six-a-side football festival today at North Field, National Sports Centre. The tournament gets under way at 11.30am with the round-robin stage of the under-16 boys tournament.

Saltus Grammar School, Berkeley Institute, CedarBridge Academy, Mount Saint Agnes and Warwick Academy will square off to earn one of the four semi-final spots. The over-16 boys and Senior School girls will start at 1.10pm. Berkeley 1, Berkeley 2, Saltus, Bermuda High School, CedarBridge Academy 1 and CedarBridge Academy 2 will play in two pools in the girls division. Eight teams signed up for the over-16 boys tournament.

Pool A will consist of Berkeley Institute, Saltus Grammar School, Bermuda Institute and Bermuda High School, while pool B will have CedarBridge Academy, Warwick Academy, Mount Saint Agnes Academy and the Centre for Student Advancement. The finals for the senior tournaments will start at 6pm.

The primary school tournaments will start at 2pm. Each zone conducted a mini tournament with the top two schools from each zone advancing to the final stages. In the boys primary B tournament, zone winners Saltus Grammar School, Somersfield Academy, Purvis Primary and Harrington Sound with be joined by runners-up St George’s Prepatory, Somerset Primary, Northlands and Paget Primary.

The girls tournament will be without Saltus, the two-times defending champions. West Pembroke and BHS qualified from the West Central zone, denying Saltus a chance for a threepeat. Other qualifiers were Northlands and Elliot Primary from the East Central zone, and Purvis and Heron Bay from the West zone.

The boys A tournament should be tightly contested once again this year. Paget Primary and West Pembroke from the West Central zone, St George’s Prep and Harrington Sound from the East, Prospect Primary and Elliot Primary from East Central, and Dalton E Tucker and Heron Bay from the West make up the eight-team field.

Middle School Girls

Saltus remain on course to win their third consecutive Middle School girls title. They finished undefeated in the round-robin stage of the tournament held at Shelly Bay Field, with four wins and one draw. Saltus were led by LeiLanni Nesbeth, who went on a scoring spree, leading all players with eight goals.

Saltus will battle Dellwood Middle School in the semi-final today at North Field. Dellwood pipped traditional girls football powerhouses Sandys Secondary and Whitney Institute to claim the fourth and final play-off spot. Dellwood are led by a double strike force of Nia Christopher and Sh’Nya Akinstall, who between them scored seven of Dellwood’s eight goals. TN Tatem Middle School finished in second place with two wins, a draw and a loss. Kaylee Lema was instrumental in their success, scoring the winner in all three of their victories. They will square off against Bermuda High School, who were equal on points with their semi-final opponents but finished third with an inferior goal difference. Lauren Way and Eloise Pinchin each scored twice for second-placed team. Both semi-finals will start at 5pm with the final to follow at 6.20pm.

Middle School Boys

Sandys Secondary squeaked into the semi-finals in the under-13 boys category. Sandys had the daunting task of having to win by four goals in their final pool match against Mount St Agnes to capture the final play-off spot. Sandys scored three first-half goals but MSA fought hard in the second half to deny their place in the final six. Just as it seemed as if Sandys were going to be denied, Makal Robinson scored a late goal to send his team into the play-offs.

Sandys then took on Whitney, who finished second in pool B, with the winner advancing to today’s finals. Zaire Smith secured the berth for Sandys, scoring the game’s only goal in a 1-0 win. Dellwood Middle School earned an automatic spot to finals day after winning all four of their pool matches, scoring five goals in the process while conceding none. Clearwater won the other semi-final spot after winning pool B with an unbeaten record. Somersfield Academy finished third in pool B and defeated pool A runners up TN Tatem 3-0 in their play-off. Somersfield got goals from Yusef Bushara, Seke Spence and Alex Withers Clark. Somersfield will face Clearwater Academy in the semi-finals, while Sandys will tackle Dellwood in the other match. Both will start at 5pm, with the winners advancing to the finals at 6pm.

Sandys will also feature in the over-13 boys semi-finals. Sandys squared off against Saltus in the final match in pool A with both teams level on points with two wins apiece. Sandys prevailed with two second-half goals to win 2-0 and book their automatic place in the semi-finals. The loss seemed to jolt Saltus, who then fell to Warwick Academy, third in pool B, in the play-off. Warwick got two goals from Zarion Swan in the 2-0 win.

Dellwood won pool B and will face Warwick Academy in the semi-finals today. Sandys will play TN Tatem, who received two late goals from Jenico Sealy to sneak past Mount St Agnes. Both semi-finals in the over-13 division will start at 5.20pm with the final at 7.20pm.