Photo: Davian Shakes of Kingston College gets fistful of the jersey of Alphanso Gooden of Wolmers’ Boys in their Walker Cup quarter-final game recently. KC won on penalties to knock the champions out of the competition. The two teams will come face to face in the quarter-finals of the Super Cup on Saturday and Wolmers’ has nothing but revenge on their minds.
The quarter-finals of the ISSA/FLOW Super Cup competition is set to sizzle, with four exciting games across two venues, on Saturday. For the first time in the three year old competition there is a balance in the number of teams advancing from the Manning Cup and DaCosta Cup competitions. In the two previous seasons, the Manning Cup teams have dominated, but this year there is a 4-4 split at this stage of the competition.
Over at Catherine Hall, defending DaCosta Cup champions St. Elizabeth Technical will go up against Bridgeport High at 5:00pm before the mouth-watering all DaCosta Cup clash between Cornwall College and Rusea’s High.
STETHS were losing semi-finalists in this competition last year and have set their sights on a spot in the final this year. They had to endure a gut wrenching round of sixteen contest against former finalists Holy Trinity High before coming out 4-3 winners. They came from behind to draw level three times before grabbing a late winner to advance from that encounter.
Their opponents Bridgeport High upset the highly fancied Dinthill Technical 1-0 to advance to the quarters in their first season in the competition. Bridgeport High are a pacey team and this should make for a cracking contest, as STEHS are no slouches themselves in the area of speed.
The second game at Catherine Hall pits two former DaCosta Cup champions against each other and this game should be worth going miles to see.
Cornwall College has been perfect all season, winning all their DaCosta Cup games before easily dismissing Denham Town High 3-0 at Catherine Hall last weekend, to ease into the quarter final round of the Super Cup. They are 15-0 in all games played this season and will fancy themselves against arch rivals Rusea’s but it will not be a walk in the park by any means.
Rusea’s who are coached by former Reggae Boy Aaron Lawrence, has lost only once this season and are extremely confident of advancing to the semi-finals. This game will not be for the faint of heart and it is unlikely that there will be an empty seat available at Catherine Hall on Saturday.
Over at Sabina Park, the opening game pits Excelsior High against an extremely confident Clarendon College outfit. Excelsior got to this stage of the competition last year and with a much deeper and more experienced outfit will be looking to advance even further this term. Doing so however will require their best effort to date, if the happenings of last weekend games are anything to go by.
Having been under the cosh for the better part of the first half against former champions Jamaica College, the Lenny Hyde coached Clarendon College took control of the game with just over fifteen minutes left in the first half and never looked back. They inflicted the first defeat of the season on the Manning Cup champions and put paid the to “4 titles” dream of the Boys from Hope Road.
This is the first time that four DaCosta Cup teams have reached so far in the Super Cup and it would be fool hardy to place a big bet against more than one of them advancing to the semi-finals.
The second game of the double header is a tantalizing rematch between Kingston College and Wolmers’ Boys.
Kingston College defeated Wolmers’ in a dramatic sudden death penalty shoot out to advance to the Walker Cup finals, ending the reign of the team from Heroes Circle and reports are that the Maroon and Gold clad fans will be out in large numbers to roar their boys on to success and revenge in the same breath, on Saturday.
Wolmers probably paid KC too much respect in the game at Constant Spring and may want to change tactics and get more into their opponents faces from the get go this time around. But KC has shown all season that they like playing on the more expansive pitches and this may just play into the hands of the Ludlow Bernard coached team.
Individually, KC match up better against Wolmer’s but in games of this nature, with so much at stake, it often comes down to who wants it more and which player is willing to hold his hand up at key moments in the game.
The game plan of playing for penalty kicks backfired in the Walker Cup semi-final for Wolmers’ so a new strategy must be contemplated for this rematch. The question is, will the “Wolmers’ Warriors” be brave enough to take the game to the team that call themselves ‘FORTIS’, meaning, “The Brave”.
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