Defending Northern Zonal champions, Tamale Islamic Science SHS (TISSEC) has failed in their quest to retrain the trophy after they were handed a painful defeat by St. Francis Xavier Seminary SHS.

St. Francis Xavier booted out the school with over a 20-point gap in what was expected to be an academic showdown for supremacy.

But TISSEC could barely keep up with the blue-shirted gentlemen from the Upper West region.

The auditorium half-filled by the Tamale-based was silenced with only echoes of claps from the eight-man crowd of Xavescans to cheer their contestants on.

The schools competed with Bolgatanga Girls SHS, Sirigu Integrated SHS and Regentropfen SHS for a slot at the semi-final stage.

At the end of the second round, the Xavescans handed TISSEC an unpredictable 30-point margin as they pulled 8 points.

The defending champions despite foreseeing their undesirable fate resolved to bow out honourably by garnering some points at the end of the contest.

The final result saw St. Francis Xavier winning with 54 points while Tatale Islamic came second with 21 points.

Bolgatanga Girls SHS fetched 14 points while Regentropfen SHS and Sirigu Integrated completed with 9 and 1 points respectively.

The school completed the first batch of contests for the zonal championship as the top-performing school.

They are in high hopes of winning this year’s Goil Plc Northern Zonal Championship as they clash with Navrongo SHS and Zebilla SHS in the semifinal contest.