Predicted underdogs, Kumasi Senior High and Technical School have eliminated seeded Aggrey Memorial SHS and giant-slayers Sonrise SHS, Ho from the 2018 National Science and Maths Quiz.

Kumasi SHTS is one of 18 schools who got a second chance to stay in the competition despite losing their preliminary contest. Being a high-scoring losing school they came into Monday evening’s one-eighth contest knowing how it feels to taste defeat.

Once bitten, twice shy you could say as the Ashanti regional school put on a brave performance to keep at bay a gritty performance from Volta-regional first-timers Sonrise SHS.

Pundits had predicted the contest to be a straight fight between seeded veterans, Aggrey Memorial School and the first-timers Sonrise Senior High, Ho.

Sonrise despite being debutants were tipped to win the game because in the prelims they put down two-time champions Opoku Ware Senior High School who are also veterans in the contest. Kumasi SHTS were not really given a chance because they got here by a second chance.

All those predictions and historical feats did not matter as Kumasi SHTS proved to have learned from their mistakes.

They took hold of the entire game, tying with Sonrise in Round One and then taking the lead from Round Two till the end of the contest.

Aggrey Memorial who were 2017 quarter-finalists struggled throughout the contest and finished the last of the three schools. They exit the contest at a one-eighth stage which is less than their 2017 performance.

Making it to the quarter-finals gives a school a seeded spot for the 2019 contest. But Aggrey Memorial will no longer enjoy this advantage.

The only high point they had in the game was scoring a perfect score in the Problem of the Day but that was not unique to them as Kumasi SHTS also had a perfect score. Sonrise, however, scored 8 out of the available 10 points in that round.

The True or False round didn’t favour Aggrey Memorial as they could only add 4 points to the tally to while their two opponents were at each other’s throats with Sonrise scoring 31 and Kumasi SHTS leading with 36 points.

The final round which required the contestants to solve riddles proved to be the decider as it was still anyone’s game with a maximum of 20 points ready for grabs.

Aggrey Memorial answered the first riddle for 4 out of 5 points. The second riddle was wrongly answered by all three schools and Sonrise answered the third for 3 points.

Kumasi High and Technical School pulled the rabbit out of the hat and won the contest after answering the final riddle for 4 points.

A Sonrise student teary after the end of the contest