A plethora of the island’s scholar athletes took centre stage during the Bermuda Schools Sports Federation Knockout Finals at North Field, National Sports Centre, on Saturday, demonstrating there to be an abundance of talent on these shores.CedarBridge Academy were the ultimate winners as they overcame Berkeley Institute in a tense penalty shoot-out after the teams stood deadlocked at 1-1 after 90 minutes in the Seniors Boy’s final.Samori Greenidge Saltus scored a first-half goal for Berkeley before Tariq Bean equalised for CedarBridge after the break.CedarBridge MVP Coolridge Fubler Jr saved two spot kicks to give his team a 3-2 victory in the shoot-out. Meanwhile, Greenidge Bean was the named MVP for Berkeley. “At half-time the gaffer gave us a good talk, told us to keep our heads up and we were able to come out and get the victory,” Jahazii Johnson, the CedarBridge captain, said. “We just had to cheer each other up, really. We’re a second-half ream, so we knew we could do better in the second half.”And so they did, fighting to pull level and force sudden death, where Fubler stepped to the fore denying Berkeley the right to walk away with the title.“I just had to stay calm and remain focused on the job I had to do and my job was to save penalties,” Fubler said.“It was a big accomplishment for us tonight because we hadn’t beaten [Berkeley] all season.“It’s been a long time since we’ve held this trophy, so it was a big accomplishment.”Likewise, coach Levarr Bassett beamed with pride at the resilience and effort of his young charges and was given a celebratory Gatorade pitcher dunking of water as his reward from an ebullient bunch.“After we played the worst half that we had all season my team showed a lot of character and I’m proud of my players because they had to overcome a lot of mental blocks to win this.”In the preceding match featuring Saltus Grammar School and Berkeley Institute for the Senior Girls’ title, the former overcame their rivals on the strength of a Massassi Smith Maxwell strike in the second half.Asked how she felt to be a champion among champions a modest Smith Maxwell noted that it was a team effort rather than anything achieved solo.“I’m definitely not the champion among champions; that’s Koa right there because I’ve been really slacking lately and working on my shooting with my other team, but I finally got it in from a cross and we’re all happy and equally responsible,” he said.Also beaming was the captain Koa Goodchild, who credited the team’s willingness to fight for each other as reason for the triumph.“We knew coming into the game that this would be our toughest match and that we would have to play together as a team and just fight hard for each other,” Goodchild said. “I’m really proud of these girls and how we pushed through to the end.”Darrin Lewis, the Saltus coach, told of how he had to move around some players as three normal starters were unavailable, which really tested the depth of the squad.“We were missing two of our starters who were away playing volleyball, so we had to change our game plan and use players out of position,” said Lewis, also the school’s director of athletics.“It was really a team effort because we were low on numbers and our talent pool was not that high. “Hats off to our players, we had a goalkeeper who is not a goalkeeper but she stepped in and did a fantastic job.”Za’Kayza Parsons was named MVP for Saltus, while goalkeeper Danielle Simmons was named as Berkeley’s standout player.Earlier in the day in the Primary School Division Two final, St George’s Preparatory beat Heron Bay 9-0 with Samir Askia 5 the top player with five goals. He was aided by Kiyuri Albouy with two goals and Nazri Butterfield and Etienne Strong scoring one each.In the Primary School Girls final, Harrington Sound Primary triumphed 7-1 over St David’s Primary, with Kalila Daley earning MVP honours with six goals, assisted by goals from R-Zanee Evans Waldron. For St David’s, Mhila Russell scored and Kalila Daley was named MVP. Saltus also claimed the Primary School Division One title with a narrow 3-2 win over Somersfield Academy with MVP Michael Burcher, Jack Fischer and Connor Hupman the scorers.Skyler Peixoto and Grant Reese scored for Somersfield, while Keivan Foster was named MVP.In the Middle School Under 13 final, Whitney Institute topped Warwick Academy 2-1 as Jayden Symons and Tajahri Rogers were the scorers while Skyler Young earned MVP honours.Niyan Grant scored for Warwick Academy and was Xahvi DeRosa named MVP.In Middle School Girls’ final, Warwick Academy won 3-1 on penalties after the game finished 2-2 after regulation time.For Warwick Academy, Adriana Argent and Sanna Simmons scored in regulation, while Zuri Swan and Samiyah Burgess did likewise for Whitney.Flora Betts was Warwick’s MVP while Eva Tuzo was named as Whitney’s MVP.In Senior School Under-16 Boys’ game, Berkeley beat Saltus 2-1 thanks to goals from Sakai Tuzo and Kynde Mallory. Tuzo also the MVP.For Saltus, Cairo Lewis netted and was named MVP was Cody Robinson.