Defending champions Clarendon College and Glenmuir High are the first two teams to book their spots in the semi-finals of the 2023 ISSA/Wata DaCosta Cup after quarterfinal round Group A wins over Manchester High and Christiana High, respectively, on Saturday.
Clarendon College moved to six points from as many games with a dominant 4-0 win over Manchester at Manchester High while Glenmuir are also perfect after two games after a 1-0 win over Christiana at Glenmuir.
The pair will meet on Tuesday at Manchester to determine the group winners. Manchester and Christiana will clash at Brooks Park in the other game.
In Group B, Dinthill Technical got their second win in as many games with a 3-0 win over Garvey Maceo at Ewarton Sports Complex.
In the day’s other game, B.B. Coke got on the board in the quarterfinal round with a 2-1 win over Cornwall College at Jarrett Park.
Dinthill Technical currently leads the group with six points from their two games with a goal difference of five while Garvey Maceo, despite their loss on Saturday, remains in second with three points and a goal difference of one.
B.B. Coke are third, also with three points and a goal difference of negative three, while Cornwall College are yet to get off the mark in fourth and have the same goal difference as B.B. Coke.
Tuesday’s final day of the quarterfinal round will see Dinthill face B.B. Coke at STETHS and Cornwall College battle Garvey Maceo at Glenmuir High.
Reigning Ben Francis champions Glenmuir High had a positive start in the ISSA/WATA daCosta Cup quarterfinals, as they blanked Manchester High 2-0 in a lively Group A encounter at their May Pen base on Wednesday.
Glenmuir, who are contesting the quarterfinal round for the first time since 2017, got their goals four minutes apart through Ja-son Whyte (51st) and Orane Watson (55th), and are now poised for a semi-final berth, provided they see off defending champions Clarendon College and Christiana High in their next two fixtures.
Clarendon College, who are heavily favoured to retain their title, also started positively with a 4-0 beating of Christiana High to grab an early lead in the group. They enjoy a two-goal difference over Glenmuir, heading into Saturday’s second round of games.
At May Pen, Glenmuir came out more purposeful, as Kyle Gordon paraded his nippy footwork in breaking down Manchester defence, while DeAndre Johnson forced a save from Jevanni Bennett with a stinging right-footer from about 20 yards out, in the early exchanges.
In fact, Manchester’s first real show of quality in attack came in the 14th minute when they got in behind Glenmuir’s defence, but were unable to find the go-ahead goal.
Both teams continued to assert their attacking prowess in the probe to break the deadlock. Glenmuir again went close in the 36th when Gordon found Watson at the top of the 18-yard box, but the latter’s effort was kept out by Bennett diving away to his left.
Manchester responded shortly after and it took a tidy save from Antwone Gooden in goal for Glenmuir to deny Michael Reid on the stroke of the break to ensure the score remained goalless.
However, Glenmuir again came out spiritedly on the resumption and inevitable found the breakthrough six minutes in when Whyte’s well-struck freekick from about 30 yards out, beat Bennett all ends up. It was a goal befitting of his first for the season.
And before Manchester could contemplate a comeback, they suffered a second blow when Watson outpaced a defender and drove a right-footed effort past the hapless Bennett for his sixth of the season.
The tempo of the game fell from there and it wasn’t until the later stages of the contest that both teams again showed some life in attack, albeit, failing to capitalise on the opportunities.
Glenmuir’s Head coach Andrew Peart said the win is just what the doctor ordered.
“It is important because we wanted to start the group very well. At the half we weren’t so pleased with the intensity at which we played, we gave Manchester High a little bit too much room, especially in the middle of the field.
“But second half, we got a brilliant goal by Jason Whyte and then it was about pressing high up the field again that led to the second goal. So I am very pleased in terms of the reaction in the second half and in the end, the result,” Peart said in a post-game interview.
His counterpart Patrick Graham believe his team was lacking in parts.
“First, let me congratulate the Glenmuir team. I believe they showed a bit more fight than us, we surrendered some crucial areas on the pitch when they were in possession and it cost us the game.
“The positive is that after going two-nil down, we showed a little bit more fight and more composure and it shows that we can play whenever we decide to play. So, we just have to prepare for the next two games,” Graham noted.
Meanwhile, over in Group two, Garvey Maceo High and Dinthill Technical registered 4-0 and 2-0 victories over BB Coke and Cornwall College respectively. Much like it is in Group A, Garvey Maceo hold a two-goal difference over Dinthill Technical.
Wednesday’s results
Group A
Clarendon College 4, Christiana High 0
Glenmuir High 2, Manchester High 0
Group B
BB Coke 0, Garvey Maceo 4
Dinthill Technical 2, Cornwall College 0
Saturday’s fixtures
Group A
Manchester vs Clarendon College @ Manchester
Christiana vs Glenmuir @ Glenmuir
Group B
Cornwall College vs BB Coke @ Jarrett Park
Dinthill Technical vs Garvey Maceo @ Ewarton Sports Complex
While the aim is to gauge the readiness of players, Neville "Bertis" Bell says the focus around the St George’s College Cup, is also to raise and nurture their aspirations and expectations for the upcoming schoolboy football season.
That he said, not only goes for his team, but for the other coaches who are using the invitational tournament, which started in 2011, as part of their preseason preparations to improve their chances of rural, urban and possibly, all-island supremacy later this year.
For this year's staging of the two-day event, host St George’s College will square off against Manning Cup semi-finalist Mona High, beaten daCosta Cup finalist, Central High, as well as Christiana High.
Action is scheduled to begin om Saturday at Winchester Park, with Central High opposing Christiana at 2:00pm, while Mona and St George’s will lock horns at 4:00pm.
On Sunday, Mona and Central High will do battle at 2:00pm, with St George’s and Christiana to meet in the 4:00pm feature contest.
"Interestingly, we have never repeated a team from the very first year until now...new teams every year. Central High are beaten daCosta Cup finalist, Christiana did well, Mona got to the semi-final last year and St George’s College were fifth overall. So the tournament is important for us and the other teams because it provides the opportunity for coaches to take a better look at players that they maybe not certain of and its close enough to the season to take it fairly seriously," Bell told SportsMax.tv.
"Maybe long ago coaches started to look at compositions of their teams, but tournament like these really gives us an opportunity to zoom in on some stuff because we are playing against quality teams, so it helps to gauge players readiness," he added.
All four teams are expected to walk away with something from the tournament, sponsored Derrimon Trading through their Refresh Water product.
The winner will pocket $100,000 and the runner-up $70,000, while the third and fourth-placed teams will receive $50,000 and $40,000 for their efforts respectively.
St George's are defending champions, with Jamaica College, Wolmer's Boys and the National Under-17 team, among previous winners.
"We feel it is a tournament to look forward to, just a couple of games, but even if you don't win, you still come out with something to go towards your programme," Bell said.
"I don't know about the other teams, but we have a good crop, we retained about 14 or 15 players who played Manning Cup last year and six or seven of those are starters. So we are not in a bad position, but it's pre-season so we will have to wait and see how we perform," he ended.
Clarendon College became the fourth and final team to advance to the semi-finals of the 2021 DaCosta Cup football competition on Tuesday after recording a 3-1 win over McGrath High at St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) to finish with a perfect nine points from their three games in Zone 4.
Both DaCosta Cup semi-finals will be played at 3:00 pm on January 12 with Dinthill Technical taking on Mannings High School at the Montego Bay Sports Complex while Garvey Maceo will do battle with Clarendon College at STETHS.
Meanwhile, Manchester High beat Cornwall College 2-1 at Green Pond in Tuesday’s other Zone 4 encounter to finish second in the zone with six points and advance to the Ben Francis Cup Knockout.
Manchester High and Cornwall College join Edwin Allen, Christiana High, Munro College, Vere Technical, STETHS and Frome Technical in the Ben Francis Cup.
In a matter of weeks, St. Andrew Technical have gone from being out of the Manning Cup to being in the semi-finals.
After originally finishing fourth in Group B behind Camperdown, Tivoli and Excelsior, they advanced to the quarterfinal round as a second-placed team after Camperdown and Tivoli were disqualified from the competition for using ineligible players.
On Friday at Jamaica College, they played out a 1-1 draw with Mona High to advance from Group 1 along with defending champions Jamaica College to the last four of the competition.
JC finished with a perfect nine points from three games with a 3-1 win over St. Catherine at Stadium East.
On Saturday, Kingston College (KC) secured the top spot in Group 2 with a 2-0 win over Excelsior also at Jamaica College.
Charlie Smith beat Kingston Technical4-1 in the other Group 2 game to advance alongside KC.
KC will play STATHS in one semi-final and JC will play Charlie Smith in the other.
Meanwhile, Mona, Excelsior, Kingston Technical and St. Catherine High will contest the Walker Cup.
In the daCosta Cup, Dinthill Technical and The Mannings School advanced to the semi-finals on Friday.
Dinthill won Zone 1 after beating Edwin Allen 1-0 at Drax Hall, their third win in as many games.
Christiana beat William Knibb 3-2 in the other Zone 1 match at Drax Hall.
Mannings played to a 1-1 draw with Munro College at STETHS to finish with seven points from their three matches and win Zone 2.
Vere Technical and Happy Grove played a seven-goal thriller in the other Zone 2 game at STETHS on the day, with the former prevailing 4-3.
On Saturday, Garvey Maceo pulled off something special to get into the semi-finals.
Entering their final match against St. Thomas Technical at Kirkvine, trailing STETHS by three goals on goal difference, Garvey Maceo produced a massive 12-0 victory over St Thomas Technical to win Zone 3 and advance.
STETHS tried their best with a 6-0 win over Frome Technical at home but it wasn’t enough.
Garvey Maceo and STETHS both finished with seven points but Garvey Maceo’s massive win meant they ended with a goal difference of +16 whereas STETHS, with a big win of their own, ended up with a goal difference of +11.
Edwin Allen, Christiana, Munro College, Vere Technical, STETHS and Frome, as second and third-placed finishers from the respective groups, have all qualified for the Ben Francis Cup.
The final two qualifiers as well as the final DaCosta Cup semi-finalists will be determined after rescheduled Zone-4 games on Tuesday when Clarendon College play McGrath High and Manchester High and Cornwall College meet.
Kingston College is now the only team in schoolboy football this season to have a 100 per cent win record after beating Kingston Technical 3-0 for their second straight win as quarterfinal-round action in Manning Cup on Wednesday.
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.
The two teams that only got into the quarterfinal round of the Manning cup because Camperdown High and Tivoli Gardens were disqualified, won their opening matches of the Manning Cup quarter-finals.
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.
The sixteen teams to advance to the quarterfinal round of the DaCosta Cup were confirmed as zone play ended on Tuesday.
The teams will be divided into four groups of four.
Each team will play three matches and the winners of each group will advance to the semi-finals of the competition.
Group 1 will have William Knibb, Dinthill Technical, Christiana High and Edwin Allen.
Mannings, Happy Grove High, Munro College and Vere Technical make up Group 2.
Group 3 will see STETHS, Garvey Maceo, Frome Technical and St. Thomas Technical do battle while Group 4 is made up of Manchester High, Clarendon College, Cornwall College and McGrath High.
Quarterfinal round play in the DaCosta Cup kicks off on Saturday, December 11.
Wednesday was an action-packed day of schoolboy football across the island.
In Manning Cup action, Kingston Technical recorded a clinical 3-0 win over Bridgeport at the Spanish Town Prison Oval to move back to the top of Group A with 12 points from five games, two points ahead of defending champions, Jamaica College.
Charlie Smith currently sits third in the group with nine points from their five games.
Group B may be the most exciting as there are five teams that have a chance to qualify for the quarterfinals alongside Camperdown, who have 16 points from their six games, with one match to play. Excelsior High School and Jonathan Grant both moved to 11 points from six games after defeating Jose Marti and Tivoli, respectively.
Excelsior beat Jose Marti 6-0 at Jamaica College and now sits second in the group on 11 points with a goal difference of 11 while Jonathan Grant won 1-0 over Tivoli Gardens at the Spanish Town Prison Oval to move to third on 11 points with a goal difference of three.
Tivoli is fourth in Group B with 10 points while STATHS, who scored a 6-0 win over Dunoon Technical at Stadium East on Wednesday, are fifth on nine points.
St. Jago High is sixth in the group with eight points.
Clan Carthy High beat Papine High 1-0 at Jamaica College in a battle of the two bottom teams in Group C.
Wednesday also saw the beginning of the quarterfinal round playoff fixtures for Zones C, F and G in the DaCosta Cup.
In Zone C, the doubleheader at STETHS saw Lacovia record the only win of the day with a 2-1 victory over Munro College.
STETHS and B.B Coke played out a 3-3 draw.
The top four teams in Zone C have now all played six matches with one more playoff fixture remaining.
STETHS lead Zone C with 13 points followed by Munro College with 12, Lacovia on 10. B.B. Coke has seven points.
Meanwhile, Garvey Maceo maintained their perfect record with a 4-0 win over Foga Road in their Zone F playoff fixture at Garvey Maceo.
In the other playoff fixture in Zone F at Vere, the hosts secured a 1-0 win over Old Harbour High.
Garvey Maceo and Vere have all but confirmed their progression to the quarterfinal round with 18 and 13 points, respectively, with each having one match left to play.
Old Harbour are third on seven points and Foga Road are fourth on six.
The first set of matches in the quarterfinal playoff round in Zone G saw Happy Grove get a 4-1 victory over Port Antonio High to ascend to the top of the zone on 10 points.
St. Thomas Tech had to settle for a 2-2 draw with Seaforth in the other playoff fixture in the zone and now sits second on nine points.
Port Antonio are third on seven points and Seaforth are fourth with four points.
In the regular zone matches from Wednesday; in the Zone-A double-header at William Knibb, Irwin High and St. James High emerged winners.
Irwin got by Spot Valley 3-0 while St. James beat Maldon 4-0.
All eight teams in Zone A have now played six matches with William Knibb at the top with 15 points closely followed by Cornwall College with 13 and Irwin with 12.
Irwin and Herbert Morrison both have 12 points but Irwin is ahead on goal difference.
Mannings High School remains atop of Zone B following a 4-0 win over Green Pond.
Green Island and Rusea’s High played to a 2-2 draw at Green Pond.
Frome secured a 4-0 victory over Petersfield at Llandilo Sports Complex in the other Zone B fixture.
Mannings lead the seven-team zone with 13 points from their five matches. Frome Technical, which has also played five matches is second on 12 while Petersfield currently sits third on seven.
In the Zone D double-header at Manchester High, Manchester and Christiana both got crucial wins over Bellefield High and DeCarteret College respectively.
Manchester High won 3-1 to move to 13 points from their five games with a goal difference of 23 to lead the seven-team zone.
Christiana High beat DeCarteret College 2-0 to also move to 13 points from five games, only trailing Manchester on goal difference.
Holmwood Technical is now third in Zone D with 10 points from five games after hammering Alston High 7-0 at Kirkvine in the third Zone D match on the day.
Dinthill Technical secured their spot in the quarterfinal round with a 2-0 win over St. Mary High in the first game of a Zone H double-header at Drax Hall.
Dinthill advances as the winners of Zone H with 16 points from their six games.
The second match of the double-header saw Brown’s Town secure a crucial 1-0 win over York Castle to keep alive their hopes of a quarterfinal round berth.
In the third Zone H match on the day, McGrath earned a vital 3-2 win over Ocho Rios High to set up an exciting final match-day that will determine who will join Dinthill as quarterfinalists.
Ocho Rios, Charlemont and McGrath all have eight points heading into their final matches, with Ocho Rios currently occupying second-place with a plus-eight goal difference.
Charlemont High lie third with a goal difference of +1 and McGrath are fourth with a goal difference of 0.
Kingston Technical produced another impressive performance to remain at the top of group A as Manning Cup action continued today.
Goals from Worrell Nelson in the 2nd minute, Beeko Smythe in the 21st minute, and Tadane Williams in the 63rd minute propelled them to a 3-1 win over former champions, St. Georges College, in the first match of a doubleheader at Stadium East.
Lamonth Rochester got the goal for St. Georges College in the 11th minute.
Kingston Technical head coach, Shaun Charlton, pointed to his team’s discipline as a reason they were able to get the job done.
“We have discipline within the team and persons who want to show Jamaica, and by extension abroad, that there is talent in the inner city,” he said.
The second game of the doubleheader saw Kingston High beat Calabar 1-0 to register their first win of the season.
Bridgeport beat Charlie Smith 1-0 in the other group game at the Spanish Town Prison Oval.
Kingston Technical remains on top of the group with nine points followed by Charlie Smith in second with six and St. Georges College in third, also with six.
Meanwhile, in zone B Dacosta Cup action, a doubleheader at Llandilo saw one goal being scored between four teams.
Green Pond and Petersfield played out a 0-0 draw in the first encounter while the second game saw Godfrey Stewart secure a 1-0 over former champions, Rusea’s.
Frome Technical beat Green Island 4-0 in the 3:30 kick-off at Wespow Park.
Frome now moves to the top of the zone with nine points followed by Mannings in second with seven and Petersfield in third, also with seven points.
In zone D, Bellefield thrashed Alston 7-0 and Manchester beat Belair 2-0 in a doubleheader at Manchester.
In the other zone D game, Christiana secured a 2-1 win over Holmwood at Kirkvine.
Christiana still leads zone D with 10 points. Manchester and Bellefield are second and third with seven and five points respectively.
In Zone F, Garvey Maceo maintained their perfect record in the group stage so far with a 3-0 win over Central High at home.
The second game of the day at Garvey Maceo saw Vere Technical get a 2-1 win over Foga Road.
Garvey Maceo leads zone F with 12 points and Vere are second with seven.
McGrath beat York Castle 4-1 in the first game of a zone H doubleheader at Drax Hall.
Charlemont got a 5-2 win over St. Mary High in the second game.
With the win, Charlemont move to the top of the zone with eight points while Dinthill sits second on seven and Ocho Rios are third on five.
In the first game of a zone C doubleheader at STETHS, B.B. Coke secured a 2-1 victory over Lacovia.
Danyea Whitely scored both goals for B.B. Coke, the first coming off a brilliant team move just before halftime, in the 46th minute, and the second coming from a close range left-footed strike in the 76th minute.
B.B. Coke have now scored 22 goals in three games while conceding just one and lead zone C with seven points.
B.B. Coke head coach Kirk Ricketts is looking for consistency from the team after getting to the top of the zone.
“To remain consistent, we are not leading by ten points so we must be consistent and take it one game at a time,” he says.
The second half of the doubleheader saw Munro College defeat STETHS 2-1 with goals from Ceon Falconer in the 54th minute and Xavier Bruce in the 74th minute.
Donte Campbell scored a penalty for STETHS in the 83rd minute.
The win moves Munro up to third in the zone behind B.B Coke and Lacovia with six points while STETHS now sit fourth on four points.
Zone B leaders, Mannings, were held to a 2-2 draw by Rusea’s at Green Pond and now have seven points from three matches.
Frome Technical moved to third in the zone behind Mannings, and Petersfield, with six points, after a 3-1 win over Godfrey Stewart in their 3:30 game at Llandilo.
At Wespow Park, Green Island beat Green Pond 2-1 to get their first points of the season.
In Zone D action, leaders Christiana were held to a 1-1 draw by Bellefield at Kirkvine in their 3:30 encounter.
Elsewhere, Belair secured a 2-1 over Alston in the first match of a doubleheader at Manchester High to move into fourth in the zone.
Manchester moved to second in the zone by securing the biggest win of the day in the competition, a 7-0 demolition of DeCarteret College in the second game.
Christiana leads zone D with seven points followed by Manchester, Holmwood, and Belair with four points each.
In a zone F doubleheader at Foga Road, Vere Technical and Foga Road both secured 1-0 victories over Old Harbour and Central High respectively.
Garvey Maceo secured a 3-0 win over Kemps Hill at home in the other zone F game on the day.
Garvey Maceo leads zone F with nine points from three matches, followed by Foga Road on six and Central High on four.
Dinthill Technical defeated McGrath 4-0 at home to move to seven points and remain at the top of zone H.
Ocho Rios moved to second in the zone on five points after a 6-0 win over St. Mary High in the second match of a doubleheader at Drax Hall. Charlemont beat Brown’s Town 1-0 in the first match and moved to third in the zone, also on five points.
Manning Cup
Moving over to Manning Cup action, the first match of the group A doubleheader at Jamaica College saw Kingston Technical, who beat JC 1-0 in their last game in a shock result, produce another solid display to brush aside Kingston High 5-0 and move to the top of the group with six points from three games.
Jamaica College used goals from Giovanni Mitto and Duncan McKenzie to beat Charlie Smith 2-0 for their first win of the season in the second match of the doubleheader.
JC remain fifth in the group with four points from three games.
Elsewhere in group A, St. Georges College got their second win is as many games with a 1-0 win over Bridgeport at the Spanish Town Prison Oval to move to second.
Charlie Smith sits third on six points and Calabar are fourth on four points.
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