Photo: Jamaica College captain, Aquin Robinson pulled the strings in midfield for his team as they totally dominated Holy Trinity High to win 3-0 in the quarter finals of the ISSA/FLOW Walker Cup at the Constant Spring Field on Saturday. Jamaica College will next face Haile Selassie who in the semifinal on Tuesday at the same venue.
While Jamaica College eased into the semi-finals of the ISSA/FLOW Walker Cup, Haile Selassie were made to work hard by 10-man Excelsior High in a game that went all the way to penalty kicks at the Constant Spring Field on Saturday.
In the day’s opening encounter, Haile Selassie had the better of the contest against the more fancied Excelsior in the early stages as the lively Hamish Smith and Akeem Grandison put the Mountain View Avenue based team under pressure. The odds went up in favour of Haile Selassie in the 32nd minute when Excelsior central midfielder, Tyrick Sutherland was given a red card for violent conduct.
The Jeffery Maxwell coached team made the advantage pay just before half time when Smith curled a beautiful free kick over the hands of Romario Palma and into the back of the net in the 42nd minute.
Haile Selassie had a number of opportunities to kill off the game in the second half but kept their opponents in the contest by being wasteful in front of goal.
Excelsior kept pressing and created a few chances to draw level, before finally doing so in the final minute of stoppage time when Cadine Graham got the ball in the back of the net after a mad scramble in front of goal.
Neither team could find the winner in extra time but it was Haile Selassie who would prevail 6-5 in the sudden death penalty shootout. Chase Knight held his nerve to score the decisive penalty and send his team through.
In the second encounter, Jamaica College barely broke a sweat against a HolyTrinity team that lacked spunk.
JC got their first goal of the game when Duhaney Williams virtually walked the ball into the net after a left sided cross was missed by a line of Holy Trinity defenders in the 16th minute.
Holy Trinity had the chance to level things immediately after when they awarded a penalty but Kajay Johnson in the JC goal came up with a big save.
Veteran Ronaldo Brown then made it 2-0 with a simple tap in to finish in the 22nd minute as the boys from Old Hope Road took full control of the contest.
Malik Howell had the goal of the contest, a rasping right footed drive from just outside the area that whistled into the back of the net to make it 3-0 in the 38th minute.
The second half was a no contest as Holy Trinity offered very little and JC seemed comfortable with just playing out the game and giving players on the bench some minutes under their legs.
“As the game went on we took full control and we were able to score three goals. We are playing against Haile Selassie in the semi-final and they went to extra time so it was very important that we conserved our energy as much as possible,” Miguel Coley said of his team’s performance.
“Yes I would have loved another goal or two but it was very, very important tactically going into the next game that we conserved energy. We did that and we got to look at players in some different positions in case we have any issues,” he further explained.
Holy Trinity coach Devon Anderson said, “The first half of this game we didn’t turn up. We created a wonderful chance, Chase Smith won a penalty right after the goal scored…and from we missed the penalty it was like downhill, we never recovered from that for the first half.”
Haile Selassie will face JC in the second semi-final on Tuesday, which is scheduled for 3:00pm at the same venue. Kingston College will face Bridgeport High at 1:00pm.
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