Defending A Division champions Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) came back from a two-goal deficit to beat Raffles Institution (RI) in a thrilling Schools National water polo final at the Physical and Sports Education Branch at Evans Road.

In a game which saw ACJC trail for the majority of the game, the team in dark blue caps scored three unanswered goals in the last quarter to edge past RI 7-6.

Raffles started the brighter of the two, rushing to a 3-1 lead with goals from Benedict Yeo, Shawn Lee and Francis Tan in the first quarter. Glen Lim replied for ACJC.

RI kept their early momentum going and led 6-4 going into the final quarter.

But despite being two goals down with just eight minutes to play, ACJC never gave up.

Said its captain, Syed Isa: "I saw fire in the eyes of my teammates and I actually gained more confidence from looking at them. I knew that they wanted to win badly and there was no way I would have wanted to win any less than they did."

The team roared back in the fourth quarter, with Isa opening the scoring before teammates, Gordon Chen and Glen Lim, chipped in. The latter's goal in the final minutes of the game, which sparked loud cheers in the stands, turned out to be the match winner against an RI team that had been previously undefeated in the tournament.

Despite the defeat RI's teacher-in-charge for the boys' water polo team, Chan Cheow Hwa, was proud of his team's performance. "

He said: "It was unfortunate that the result didn't go our way today but we showed good fighting spirit and I know the boys gave their best."