Clarendon College will contest the final for the second straight edition as they dethroned defending champions Kingston College with a 2-0 win in their 1:00 pm encounter at Stadium East.
Clarendon College, who provided KC with their first loss in schoolboy football this season, took the lead through Keheim Dixon in the 86th minute and the win was all but secured after Christopher Hull finished off a brilliant passing move to double their lead in the 89th minute.
The Chapleton-based school avenged their 1-0 defeat to KC in the final of the Champions Cup in 2019.
Their opponents will be Dinthill Technical who secured a 5-4 penalty shootout over Jamaica College after playing out a 0-0 draw in the 3:15 pm game at Stadium East.
Both teams will be fighting for their first hold of title in the final, which will take place on Saturday, January 15 at 3:00 pm.
The Chapelton-based school, who copped the ISSA/Wata daCosta Cup and All-island Olivier Shield titles, added a bit more history to their impressive 2023 campaign, as they won the fourth edition of the KFC Goodwill International Schools Under-18 Football tournament in Guyana, on Friday.
In what was their debut outing at the tournament, Clarendon College proved too good for rivals. They eased past Trinidad and Tobago's St Benedict’s College 2-1 in the showpiece contest at the Ministry of Education ground on Carifesta Avenue.
With their usual fluid passing and high-pressing attacking ability, Clarendon College made light work of a very physical St Benedict’s team. The Jamaicans wore down their opponents defence and later found the go-ahead goal through Daniel Clark in the 32nd minute.
Clarendon College again showed more purpose on the resumption, and by virtue of that, again penetrated St Benedict’s harangued defence, as Justin Hayles doubled their lead in the 52nd minute.
The Trinidadians later pulled one back, but that was all they got from a Clarendon College outfit that had very little issues for the remainder of the contest.
Clarendon College Coach Lenworth Hyde, who played for CC back in the 1970s and was a member of their all-conquering 1977 side, said he has designs on winning the Champions Cup next season.
“We definitely want to win the Champions Cup. That is one of the aims. It has been eluding us two seasons now so we will try at it again this season,” he told Sportsmax.TV Wednesday during the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) SBF Presentation Ceremony where Clarendon College was presented with the DaCosta Cup and the Olivier Shield.
He said his team learnt a valuable lesson in the Champions Cup final against Kingston College last season. CC was outplayed and subsequently lost 1-0 to Ludlow Bernard’s outstanding Kingston College side at the National Stadium in Kingston.
“We went in thinking we had already won the match. We didn’t approach it right. We were lackadaisical and KC really came out with fire. We tried to quell it but we didn’t score on the day. I must lift my hat to the KC team.”
Looking ahead to the new season, Hyde said he has retained a nucleus of players that should see them successfully defending their titles.
“We have to continue working hard. We have the material. We have a good set of youngsters 14 and 16 years old. We have a good cadre of players and that is what we love. When you have talented players it is just my duty to guide them in the right direction and keep them disciplined,” said Hyde said only lost five players from his almost all-conquering squad from last season.
Having won the Olivier Shield over Jamaica College thus breaking the urban schools’ hold after more than a decade, Hyde said he takes special pride in being able to bring the trophy back to rural Jamaica.
“When I used to play we were on top. We used to beat the town teams. That is our aim right now and that motivates me to show that football is not only in Kingston alone, but it’s also all over.”
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January 5th is the date schoolboy football fans will circle as defending champions Kingston College will begin their defence of their crown against Manning’s School at STETHS in a 3:00pm fixture.
At the same venue at 1:00pm, STATHS will do battle with Dinthill Technical.
Stadium East will host the other two quarterfinal matches on the day, with Charlie Smith locking horns with Clarendon College at 1:00pm and Jamaica College squaring off against Garvey Maceo at 3:00pm.
The winners will advance to the semi-finals to be played on Saturday, January 8th at either Stadium East or the National Stadium with the final scheduled to be played on January 15th.
The former footballer, basketball coach and all-around humanitarian, had been battling illness for some time and was hospitalized for two to three weeks in early April. He was eventually released but was admitted to hospital again on Sunday after complaining of not feeling well.
Hutchinson, one of the top schoolboy footballers of the 1970s, won the Manning Cup title with Tivoli Gardens Comprehensive High School in 1976 before winning the DaCosta Cup title with the near invincible Clarendon College team in 1977, playing alongside fellow schoolboy greats Lennie ‘Teacha Hyde, Oneil Russell, Wayne Wonder and Donovan ‘Che’ Wray.
The Clarendon College team was coached by the legendary Winston Chung-Fah, who died in 2018.
Later on, he would Hutchinson would become a coach for the Tivoli Gardens basketball team that won three championships in the early 2000s.
According to his nephew, Allan Jones, Hutchinson believed in his community of Tivoli Gardens and did his best to help those in need, raising money to cover tuition fees and providing other well-needed resources for the children in the community.
He is survived by nine children and his girlfriend Sharon Reid.
KC now leads Group 2 with six points from their two games.
Trailing Kingston College with three points from two games is Excelsior High School, which suffered a 2-1 defeat to Charlie Smith High that was getting their first win of the round.
Kingston Technical have yet to register a point after losing their first two games.
In Group 1 play on Tuesday, defending champions Jamaica College became the first team to advance to the semi-finals with a hard-fought 5-3 triumph over ST Andrew Technical High School (STATHS).
JC remains atop of the group with six points from their two games ahead of STATHS on three and Mona, also on three, after their crucial 2-0 win over St. Catherine High.
STATHS and Mona will do battle to see who joins JC in the semis.
Over in the DaCosta Cup, Dinthill Technical and Edwin Allen both got wins in Zone 1 action on Tuesday to set up a winner-take-all game to decide which of the two will advance to the semi-finals.
Dinthill defeated William Knibb 3-0 while Edwin Allen comfortably got by Christiana High 4-0 in a double-header at Manchester High.
Dinthill and Edwin Allen now both have six points from two matches with Dinthill currently ahead with a goal difference of 7 to 6 for Edwin Allen.
Mannings got their second win in Zone 2 with a 6-0 thrashing of Happy Grove at Drax Hall to remain atop the zone with six points from two games, two points ahead of Munro College, which outscored Vere Technical 4-3 and now have four points.
Happy Grove currently sits third with one point while Vere is fourth with none.
This is another scenario where the winner of the match between Mannings and Munro will advance to the semi-finals.
On Wednesday, Garvey Maceo and St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) played to a 2-2 draw at Kirkvine while Frome hammered St. Thomas Technical 9-2 at Drax Hall in Zone 3 action.
This was Garvey Maceo’s first draw this season after winning their first eight matches.
STETHS and Garvey Maceo both have four points after two games with STETHS leading the zone on goal-difference of five against two for Garvey Maceo.
Frome is third with three points and St. Thomas Technical are fourth with none.
STETHS will play Frome in their final match while Garvey Maceo will play St. Thomas Technical.
At Manchester High, Clarendon College got a 2-0 win over Manchester to get their second straight win in Zone 4 and move to six points.
Excelsior and STATHS had originally finished third and fourth in Group B of the Manning Cup preliminary round but advanced after Camperdown and Tivoli were disqualified from the tournament for using ineligible players.
STATHS won their Group 1 opener 4-1 over St. Catherine High on Friday while Excelsior High beat Kingston Technical 3-1 in their Group 2 opener on Saturday.
Jamaica College beat Mona High 2-0 in the other Group 1 match on Friday and Kingston College got by Charlie Smith 3-0 in the other Group 2 match on Saturday.
The quarter-final round of the DaCosta Cup also got underway on Saturday with Dinthill Technical blanking Christiana High 4-0. Meanwhile, Edwin Allen beat William Knibb 2-0 in the second Zone 1 game on the day.
Mannings were the only Zone 2 winners Saturday, beating Vere Technical 3-2.
Munro College, which have struggled for form played to a 1-1 draw with Happy Grove in the other Zone game on the day.
Munro entered that game on the back of two straight losses in their Zone C playoff games against Lacovia and B.B. Coke.
In Zone 3, Garvey Maceo continued their fantastic form this season by beating Frome 2-0 while STETHS easily got past St. Thomas Technical 6-1.
Elsewhere, defending champions Clarendon College and Manchester High got wins in Zone 4 action.
Clarendon College defeated Cornwall College 2-1 while Manchester High ran out 4-0 winners over McGrath High.
Quarterfinal action in both competitions resumes on Tuesday.
