The beauty about football is that it is played on a field and not on paper, so each team must go out there and earn each win on each match day. This absolute truth was no more evident than in the quarter final round of the Prep School Henriques (Knock Out) Competition, played on Saturday November 23rd at the UWI Bowl.
The beauty about football is that it is played on a field and not on paper, so each team must go out there and earn each win on each match day. This absolute truth was no more evident than in the quarter final round of the Prep School Henriques (Knock Out) Competition, played on Saturday November 23rd at the UWI Bowl.
All four games were played at the same venue and the day’s first game should have been used as a marker of things to come.
Defending Alberga Cup champions Quest Prep, were expected to easily get by Emmanuel Christian Academy but they were stunned by the upstarts who scored with just over 30 seconds on the clock. ‘Emmanuel’ got an early corner which was whipped in by Zane Palamino. Two of the Quest defenders moved out of the path of the ball expecting someone else to clear and the ball ended up in the back of the net.
Quest would respond and soon took control of the midfield. On one attack they made good progress down the left flank through winger Jahiem Rose who whipped in a cross for captain Michael Allen to run unto, but the lanky player just failed to get a touch on the ball with the goal gaping.
Seven minutes later another chance went a begging when Revaldo Mitchell failed to put away a rebound from the Emmanuel goal keeper.
Quest kept pushing for the equalizer and their efforts were rewarded in the 19th minute when Tashawn Lawson found himself with time and space inside the box and he produced a calm finish to draw his team level.
Quest were ahead shortly before half time when Allen rifled home from just inside the box making the score 2-1 to Quest at the break.
Emmanuel Christian Academy refused to go away and were level 12 minutes after the break when Keistopher McDonald put his laces through the ball from the edge of the box to remind Quest that they were in a game.
At 2-2 the game was firmly in the balance but just six minutes later Quest would show their quality. Awarded a free kick just outside the area, Jhudai Williams stepped up to curl his effort into the back of the net and put Quest back in the ascendency.
The result was put beyond doubt just before full time, when Quest captain Allen scored his second of the game, also directly from a free kick. His shot, almost from the half line, was given a lot of air and it took a huge bounce and eluded the keeper who misjudged the ball.
At 4-2 Emmanuel Christian Academy were a beaten team, but by no means disgraced, against a team they had given a right good scare.
Gregory Jones, coach of Emmanuel Christian Academy was pleased with the effort of his boys despite the loss: “We knew it was going to be a tough game, but we came with a game plan to try to get a win. We made a couple of mistakes that cost us, but we played a quality team that are tactically very good.
“We have no reason to hold our head down. We will just have to focus on our game against Mona (Alberga Cup) on Monday.”
The sheepish smile on the face of Quest coach Errol White at the final whistle was proof enough that he had just had a proper scare: “It was a good game and as the competition goes on you have to expect tougher games.
“The boys showed spirit and fight to come back after going down so early. What is good, is that they kept their composure when Emmanuel drew level in the second half. We saw things that we need to work on, but we saw some good things as well,” he surmised.
Results of the other quarter finals:
Vaz Prep 2-0 Hillel Prep
Lannaman’s Prep 3-0 Wolmer’s Prep
Hydel Prep 0-1 Mona Prep
The semi-final pairings are:
Quest Prep v Mona Prep
Vaz Prep v Lannaman’s Prep
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