Aggrey Memorial School last Friday beat Pope John Secondary 5-4 on penalties at the Accra Stadium to retain their title as southern sector school champions.

By that victory, Aggrey have also qualified to play in the grand finale of the VALCO tournament which will come off at a later date.

The southern sector competition produced the highest number of goals despite the drought in the final match.

In the group stages of the competition, O'reilly Secondary whipped Awudome Secondary 9-0 to emerge the highest scoring school in one match but failed to progress beyond the group phases.

Aggrey Memorial had an easy title defence at the early stages of the contest when they overwhelmed Nkroful Agric. Secondary School and Keta Business College 3-1 and 4-1 before defeating Apam Secondary 2-1 in a crucial semi-final clash to set the final tie against Pope John Secondary.

Pope John’s Secondary, on the other hand, walloped their opponents on their way to the finals. Pope Johns, overall winners of the second VALCO competition in 1999, thrashed Temasco 4-1, beat Ghana National 4-1 and completed their winning spree with a 4-0 victory over Bompeh Secondary Technical.

Pope John’s, however, lost narrowly to Aggrey Memorial in the final, but have still qualified for the grand finale of the competition together with Apam Secondary.

The three schools will, therefore, meet the other three winners of the northern sector group in the grand finale. They are Tamale Business Secondary, who defeated Navrongo Secondary 2-0 in the northern sector final match, and Osei Kweretwei Secondary who also placed third in the competition.

Meanwhile, the cash prizes for this year's final competition are certain to go up to strengthen the competitive urge of the tournament.